Elsie The Champion Runner As long as I can remember we had a kitchen clock that sat on a shelf above the kitchen table. The clock was given to mom and dad as a wedding present. It had a very ornate carved oak wooden case with cut out designs . It stood about eighteen inches tall and was twelve inches wide and it chimed with a dull clank every hour and every half hour. My younger sister Elsie was a real clock watcher. We walked home from school and every day we walked past the livestock sales barn. The barn had a big six foot clock on the front of the building. Everyone said the sales barn was one mile from our house in the country. When Elsie came to the sales barn on her way home from school she looked at the clock to make sure exactly what time it was. When she got the exact time she took off running as fast as she could all the way home and into the kitchen to look at the clock to see exactly what time it was. We must mention that the road was gravel and not only did she run the mile but also ran off the road ,up the driveway and into the kitchen. That’s what makes this run so remarkable. For years she swore she could run the mile in three minutes. We told her she belonged in the Olympics.