“Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”
Steven Wright – American comedian, actor, writer, and film producer.
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“Just another mile and a half,” cheered the treadmill display. “But 3,000 more steps,” groaned the voice in my head.
The same voice reminds me every month about gym membership fees. Some months I call it dues. Others, I just call it a donation.
Walking is more than the dying art of getting from one place to another on foot. Some walk to exercise. I do. On the streets. At the gym. Mornings. Evenings. Keeping the heart healthy, the body moving, cholesterol levels down, weight off. It works for some. I keep hoping for me, too—someday.
Walking is also a good time to think. Like I did last week, reminiscing about walking to school. Back when grade-school kids actually did such things. Through rain, sleet, and snow. Uphill, both ways. Carrying 87 books and a Roy Rogers lunch box emblazoned with pictures of Roy and Dale, Trigger and Bullet.
I also wondered how many miles I’ve walked in my lifetime.
I walked to school during third, fourth, and fifth grade in the West Texas town of Seymour. The elementary school was about four blocks north of our house on East Morris Street. Which was about the same distance east of the downtown square. My father ran the local five-and-dime Perry Brothers store, and walking to town for a haircut after school and riding home with him is a great memory.
When we moved East to Mount Pleasant, hikes to school at South Ward Elementary were just two blocks from our house on Redbud Lane. Walking then also included real hikes. Saturday five-milers were commonplace in Coach Sam Parker’s Boy Scout troop. Sometimes hiking to a spot for a cookout lunch, then hiking back to town. A ten-mile hike or even an occasional 20-mile hike provided miles of memories.
Not every walking experience is intentional, however. Walking can sometimes be a necessity. Even a last resort. Like the time my son, Lee, and I stopped at an antique mall while traveling home to Pipe Creek in the Hill Country after a visit to East Texas. As I made my exit, I noticed the fuel gauge. “Gas at the next stop,” I noted.
Back on the road and making good time on I-10 west of Houston, the truck hiccupped a couple of times then went silent. “Oh yeah,” Lee reminded me. “Don’t forget, we need gas.”
Coasting to the top of the next hill revealed a fuel stop down the road. A long way down the road. I didn’t count the steps to the station. Nor did I count them walking back carrying our newly purchased fuel can with a couple of gallons in it. At the station to top off the tank, the odometer pegged our walk there and back to be at a little over two miles. Lee swore it was 20. One way.
Then there was that flight from Milwaukee to Appleton, Wisconsin. Arriving late one summer afternoon. The Appleton airport was small, and so was the airplane that got me there. My hotel was located on West College Avenue, which conveniently ended at the airport entrance.
“I can have a cab here in 30 minutes to an hour,” reported the ticket agent seeking transportation to the hotel.
Squinting a little, I looked down the street and convinced myself I could almost see the place where I had reservations.
“Thanks,” I replied. “My walking shoes are in my bag. I can beat that.”
“It’s 2.3 miles to the airport,” the hotel desk clerk said later. Looking at me askance while tapping on her keyboard.
Thank goodness my bag was a roller. I skipped the treadmill session I’d planned for the hotel gym that evening.
These days, according to the app on my phone, I breeze through about 3,500 to 5,000 steps a day, gusting to 7,500 or more on days when the treadmill and I connect. That’s 1.75 to 3.75 miles a day. Some charted exercise; some not so much.
I can honestly say that I’ve learned a great deal from walking. Like watching the gas gauge more closely. And I’ve given up walking from airports to hotels.
As I finish writing this just now, I’m wondering how many steps is it from the couch to the refrigerator?
And will I need my walking shoes?
—Leon Aldridge
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Aldridge columns are featured in these publications: The Center Light and Champion, The Mount Pleasant Tribune, the Rosenberg Fort Bend Herald, the Taylor Press, the Alpine Avalanche, the Fort Stockton Pioneer, the Elgin Courier, The Monitor in Naples, and Motor Sports Magazine.
© Leon Aldridge and A Story Worth Telling 2025. Excerpts and links may be used, provided full and clear credit is given to Leon Aldridge and ‘A Story Worth Telling’ with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.
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