A Fable: The Old Man and the Bridge

Once upon a time there was an old man who lived on the hill just above the railroad tracks on the edge of a village. Within sight of his house was the railroad bridge over a small creek which ran alongside the town.

Now the railroad was busy with passenger and fast freight trains coming through the gap in the mountains to the West and running East toward the large cities along the ocean. The old man lived alone with nothing much to do except watch the trains.

On this particular day, as would sometimes happen, a group of children from the village came up the hill walking in the creek and began playing on the railroad bridge. The old man watched as they climbed on the timber supports and walked the rails and ties of the bridge. Finally, he could not bear to watch the children on the bridge any longer. So he came down the slope to the bridge and with a big voice told the children to stop playing on the bridge and go home.

The children were frightened by the look and tone of the old man. However, as they left the bridge, they threw rocks from the creek at the old man and yelled things they had heard their parents say when they were angry. Not long after the children left the bridge and were heading back to town a fast freight train rumbled through the gap in the mountains crossed the bridge and headed down to the cities along the ocean.

Later that day, as families gathered to share their evening meal, the children told the story of the gruff old man who lived on the hill above the railroad tracks. They mimicked his big deep voice telling the children to, “get off the bridge and go home to play.” The parents of the children all shook their heads and commented how something needed to be done to protect their children from such a man. Silently they vowed to spurn the old man for being so hard and uncaring.


Questions for Pondering
1. Why did the old man chase the children from the bridge?

2. How should the parents of the children react to the old man?

3. Did anyone on the trains know or even care about the situation?

4. Where do you see yourself in the fable? Which of the characters are you today?

5. Tell about a similar experience to “The Old man and the Bridge” in your lifetime?

Now you finish the fable using these starters:
1. One spring day a new family moved into a home just below the tracks and brought a plate of warm cookies to the old man who…
2. The old man died later that year and three weeks after his death the children were once again playing on the railroad bridge when …
3. And so it went for many years with the old man at odds with the village when one day a visitor came to town and …
4. Over the next couple of years the train tracks were abandoned by the railroad and a bicycle path was established. The old man found …
5. That year In the middle of winter, the old man died. When the people from the village came to clean out the house above the tracks, to their amazement they found …