Shoeless Joe

Writing of my little people sighting at the fair reminded me of my very first appalling 'how'? 'why'? experience.
Our farm was five miles southwest of Corning. Nearly all our shopping needs were met there on our weekly Saturday night trips. A few times a year, however, we got to go to one of the nearby 'big' towns to shop. Creston, Red Oak and Clarinda were all within a roughly 25 mile distance. All three towns sported J. C. Penney stores of two to three floors of merchandise as well larger dime stores and grocery stores. It was a big deal to visit one of those three shopping meccas.
It was during one of those trips to Clarinda the summer before I turned eight that I came face to face with an alien creature.
Clarinda is built on the traditional square with businesses fronting the four blocks surrounding the courthouse. Routinely, we parked somewhere on the square closest to wherever we expected to do most of our shopping; usually the south side. Then we walked over to Penney's on the southwest corner. Sitting there on the sidewalk was a man with no legs. The board he sat on was only a few inches off the ground and had some sort of wheels on it. He was strapped to the board. In his hand was a tin can. In the can were yellow pencils which he was trying to sell.
My young mind could not comprehend such a sight. I was horrified. Mom declined buying any pencils which started the questions whirling in my head: "How could he survive just selling pencils? (And had she just doomed him?) Where did he live? How did he get in/out of a place if there were stairs?" So many questions with no answers. I couldn't talk to Mom about him. I was too upset.
Later I saw him cross the intersection and go zipping along the sidewalk on his little board. He stopped at the popcorn stand outside the dime store and talked to the man running it. Maybe he had a friend? That thought helped ease my mind some. But I remember him and those scary feelings to this day.