nonogenarians

Updated: August 7, 2026

There was nearly an hour of it, splashing knee-deep through what had been when we came out little dry sandy hollows; steering by guess, for the eye could make out nothing fifty yards ahead, even before the cheese-thick darkness fell; bowed like nonogenarians under the burden of water; staggering back and forth as the storm caught us crosswise or the earth gave way under us.

Harry Alverson Franck - Zone Policeman 88; a close range study of the Panama canal and its workers