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The open life of Walter Taylor

By DAWN HANKINS - dhankins@t-g.com
Posted 2/12/22

When driving down South Cannon Boulevard on Tuesdays about 3 p.m., feel free to honk your horn at Walter Taylor, an 88-year-old who gets around better than most. He’s still serving as traffic control director for Shelbyville Community Soup Kitchen.  

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The open life of Walter Taylor

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When driving down South Cannon Boulevard on Tuesdays about 3 p.m., feel free to honk your horn at Walter Taylor, an 88-year-old who gets around better than most. He’s still serving as traffic control director for Shelbyville Community Soup Kitchen.  

Walter, a father of 2 and grandfather of 3, started directing the traffic which comes in to pick up meals when the soup kitchen opened up at the old Save-A-Lot about 3 years ago.  

He waited tables at the soup kitchen at First United Methodist on square prior to that time. His membership in the First United Methodist Men’s Club helped get him involved in SCSK.  

He married his second wife, Charlene Handy; they began attending FUMC together after they married.  

Professionally, Walter operated for many years hand-fed and automatic presses at Jostens. He says as a senior citizen now, he’s thankful for the company retirement plan.  

He’s originally from Illinois. But Walter has certainly made Bedford County his home, having served in the past as a Unionville volunteer fire fighter and as department chief. He sees a lot of churches really being involved in the soup kitchen now.  

There’s great need for such, he explains. The homeless, his observance is, “I see them . . . come down from the bridge. It’s gotten so cold, I think they’re moving around a bit, where it’s warmer. For a while, we probably had 10 to 20 people come from beneath the bride. I tell you, I wouldn’t want to be in a sleeping bag under the bridge.”  

SCSK also has a clothes offering as well as food on Tuesday afternoons. But Walter’s job is to make sure the traffic flows well. Most important, he enjoys meeting and greeting the people. Some are new, others are regulars. 

 For such, Walter is pretty well known in this town. While he’s working at SCSK, people honk their horns to greet him. He and his wife are enjoying retirement, he says, but Walter is determined to stay active.  

He’s not a recliner kind of guy, never has been. He’s a veteran, having served in U.S. Air Force for 6 years. He served as a flight engineer from a C-130 plane.  

“I became a pilot after I got out of service. I’ve still got my license.”  

Is there anything Walter hasn’t done? This veteran’s pretty humble. He admits his pilot days are over; he had a heart attack a few years ago and had stents placed in his heart.  

“If it had been 15 years prior . . . would have never made it. It was tough. It was tough.”  

Walter believes he’s been really blessed, especially having earned two wonderful wives in his life. His first wife, the mother of his two children, he recalls, passed away at about age 50 of cancer.  

He and Charlene have been married now 22 years this June. They love to travel, which is something he also got to do while serving his country. He’s been to Hawaii twice and several times there while in the service. He’s been to Columbia and even Alaska. 

“I’ve done a lot of things,” he says while sitting on the tailgate of his red pickup truck. His bucket list trip is The Holy Land. But now that he’s nearly 90 and not in as good of health, he’ll have to see about that venture.  

As for SCSK, he enjoys it. “It gives me a purpose in life. I try to help everyone, no matter who it is.”  

Growing up on a sustainable farm, he realizes how things could have been different for the country in the past, or might possibly be more strained in the future.  

“Anyone can wind up poor,” he advises.  

With a big grin, and his typical jovial laugh, he tells an anecdote about a 95-year-old interviewed at nursing home. When asked if he was ‘shooting for 100’ Walter explains how the old guy quipped, ‘I’m just shooting for 95.’  

That’s Walter’s current state of mind. The man who’s basically worked “daylight to dark,” all his life, says he’s just living “one day at a time.”  

“That’s about all we can do, I guess,” he says while waving at passers-by.