Geese Crossing
By Lynda Van Kuren
Fairfax
As I was driving home today, I was stopped by a red light on Nutley Street, next to the Vienna Metro station. My gaze was drawn to a family of geese crossing the street: mommy leading, daddy bringing up the rear, all the little ones in between. They waddled deliberately and unhurriedly, staying within the crosswalk. The light turned green. Four lanes of traffic remained at a standstill, waiting for the family to make it safely across the road. Not one person honked.
By
washingtonpost.com editors
| June 10, 2009; 5:24 PM ET
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wildlife
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Posted by: zkgr | June 11, 2009 12:50 PM | Report abuse
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Many years ago, before the mega-construction there, I was rushing to work on Jones Branch Drive in McLean one morning, when the traffic stopped. Fuming, I craned my neck to see what the heck the problem was. Several families of geese were crossing the road. A big gander stood, calmly facing down four lanes of traffic, while the families, Mama first, goslings, then Papa of each family heading up the rear, marched across in single file. After all had crossed safely, the big gander released the traffic from his beady-eyed glare, strolled to the curb, and we all continued on to work, touched and considerably mellowed by the event.