On a certain street on my bicycle route I often see the same walkers out every morning. We wave, they walk on, I pedal on. There is one woman, however, that displays a bizarre behavior: she walks backward.
When I first mentioned this to Bill, he suggested maybe she’s sort of cross-training. Walking backward uses different muscles than walking forward. Maybe Tuesday and Thursday are her walking backward days of her everyday exercise schedule.
This woman, though, is not the cross-training type. She’s not the power mom in her spandex and sports bra pumping her arms as she books it down the sidewalk. Neither is she the elderly woman in her trainers and leisure suit enjoying her well-kept body late in life. This woman is in her 60s, always wears a navy blue trench coat and an allergy mask, and always carries a Schnuck’s cloth tote bag and umbrella with the pointy thing on the end like a cane. She walks very slowly and carefully (granted, I would too if I couldn’t see where I was going). She’s always on the same side of the sidewalk and doesn’t turn around for driveways or cross-street crossings. She has puffy, dark eyes and keeps her long brown hair loose but inside her coat. But she seems cogent, lucid, with-it. She obviously recognizes me now, although she doesn’t wave or smile back at me.
I’m very curious why she walks backward. She doesn’t really welcome interaction, though, so I’m left to my own conjectures. Maybe it’s an exercise in trust: “A higher power will tell me if I’m in danger; I can trust said higher power to keep me safe even if I can’t see where I’m going.” Maybe she has some muscle ache that only acts up if she’s going forward. Maybe there are hidden cameras capturing people’s reactions and broadcasting us to the world at large?
Magrilless 
perhaps her knee caps are on backwards like a dog?
And that’s why she wears the trench coat: so people won’t be able to see her knees?Of course. That makes sense.
very interesting.Is she always in the same block? What are the possibilities?She is really a ghost or did you just make that up? Yes your right, the coat; so she has to be a ghost.But wait, the shoes. OK so the shoes would still work for a ghost. Anyhow, now that you’ve told us about her, you probably won’t see her again.
in a “big” city such as the one you and Bill/Eliza will find yourselves in, in say, ONE YEAR, the dear women might be the norm and not unusual as we see her in Urbana IL. She reminds me of David-in-the-White-Dress fame…In Sante Fe David's chic was recognized or perhaps (me thinks), part of the Sante Fe flavor. He always dressed in a dainty, knee to ankle length, frilly, rather sweet & lovely white dress, 12 months of the year. The black leg hair threw me sometimes but guys, this was just David. Anyway, perhaps David-in-the-White-Dress and Walking-the-Other-Direction-Lady know something the rest of us are missing.
in a “big” city such as the one you and Bill/Eliza will find yourselves in, in say, ONE YEAR, the dear women might be the norm and not unusual as we see her in Urbana IL. She reminds me of David-in-the-White-Dress fame…In Sante Fe David's chic was recognized or perhaps (me thinks), part of the Sante Fe flavor. He always dressed in a dainty, knee to ankle length, frilly, rather sweet & lovely white dress, 12 months of the year. The black leg hair threw me sometimes but guys, this was just David. Anyway, perhaps David-in-the-White-Dress and Walking-the-Other-Direction-Lady know something the rest of us are missing.
opps, sent twice…maybe this though really really important and the electronic gods needed it posted twice…….or maybe operational error.
She sound like a thinker. All that walking backwards must require a lot of thinking. And an allergy mask, you say?I bet she thinks that if she faces forward when she walks, she’s breathing in more nasty air as she faces her trajectory head on. I bet she thinks its better to let her hair (essentially pinned down inside the coat – also not letting the nasty breeze through her locks) take the brunt. May also explain the coat and umbrella as protection.