By MONTE DUTTON

As I was driving to Laurens Friday afternoon, I thought about how the Raider cross country team had the tougher task running the game ball to the city square on Thursday evening.

When I was a kid, I rode my bike from Clinton to Laurens and back several times. It was a sturdy Western Flyer – so named because it was purchased from Western Auto – and it didn’t have gears. I think I rode my bike to Laurens because Edward’s had in stock a plastic model car I wanted to build. Nearly 50 years ago, kids did things like that all the time.

“Mom, I’ll be back by supper. I’m riding to Laurens on my bicycle.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

If a kid did that nowadays, they’d arrest his (or her) parents. SLED would be brought in. Channel 4 would already be there when he got to Edward’s. Okay, Walmart.

Highway 76 has two big hills – the first, then a dip, then a larger one up to about where Wendy’s is now. I had to get off my bike and push. All subsequent trips to the county seat were taken on the old Laurens road by the airport. It was longer but less likely to kill.

The Laurens football team had an uphill climb, too.

Getting all the ballgame work done – photos take a while, folks – kept me behind the laptop till 4 a.m. I scraped myself off the bed and dawdled to the post office, the bank – one often follows the other – and then over, fashionably late, for Presbyterian College’s football Fan Day. It was hot as blazes – I’m still drinking plenty of liquids in response to Friday night at K.C. Hanna Stadium – and physical activities were understandably curtailed.

I had fun doing nothing in the Bailey Memorial Stadium press box but swap stories with John Clayton, Brent Stastny and Brandon Burke. I never came within 50 yards as the crow flies from Steve Englehart.

Then I went to the gas station – on fumes – and to grocery shop. So far today I’m on an all-bagel, cream cheese and smoked turkey diet. Cool peach tea, tasty ballgame on TV, I’m fine.

I had a bit of difficulty getting accustomed to the North Alabama-Mercer game. I’m mostly supportive of Southern Conference teams, but I had to reverse my adrenaline because the Lions were wearing purple numbers on all-white uniforms, and I’m conditioned for that to be Furman. Plus, North Alabama’s quarterback was No. 6 (Tyler Huff).

Football is hard. Winning is what makes the sacrifice worth it. When I was in high school, I often thought about how playing football made me feel as if I could do anything, and riding home on the bus after our team clobbered another, I remember pondering what it was like on the other sideline. Did their players feel as if they could do nothing? I’m glad I never got a chance to know.

Hang in there, Raiders. Things’ll come around.

Driving home, listening to Phil Kornblut talk about other games around the state, I thought about, of all people, Abraham Lincoln.

On March 4, 1865, in his second Inaugural Address, 41 days before his assassination, Lincoln said, in part: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Had Lincoln lived, the world now, 158 years later – that’s seven-score and 18 years if you’re scoring in antiquated math at home — might be a better place.

For the 2-0 Clinton Red Devils, the work has only just begun, and the same is true of the 0-2 Laurens Raiders. To paraphrase Roger Miller, who had little in common with Lincoln but brilliance, Clinton has been a long time leaving K.C. Hanna Stadium, but it’ll be a long time gone.

Clinton’s next work is home improvement against Newberry and Chapman. They’re both undefeated, too. One week at a time, Sweet Jesus.

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Visit MonteDutton.net to take a look at the books I’ve written over the years. I’ve written novels about a musician, high-school football, political crime and corruption, stock-car racing, and, most recently, baseball. They’re inexpensive, whether ordered in paperback, or downloaded where you can read them in your phones or tablets.