Generation gap

I have no problem getting old, I mean, what is the big deal? Everyone gets a day older every day. I have had the opportunity, through my many career choices, to work with people who are much younger than me. And over the years I have worked with some interesting people. I have also developed some special relationships with some great people. I have mentioned in earlier posts that I once owned a restaurant. When I finally pulled the trigger and closed the joint there were five people working for me. Now most people look at a failed business venture as exactly that, a failure. I choose not to and I'll explain why. I still keep in contact with them, I have attended some of their weddings. Knowing that they still think enough of me to share their most special day, well, how can that be a failure?
There have been some very funny moments which is the point of this post. The looks that I have gotten after some comments were priceless. I remember telling my staff one day that I was thirteen years old when we got cable tv. I bet dinosaur bones have not been looked at that way. The conversation took place one day about taking a date to a movie and then turned into every ones first movie date. When I said that mine was Top Gun, a girl asked, "That movie was in theatres?" The best had to be the day a new kid named Josh was making a delivery. He backed his hatch-back to the front door and we loaded him up. When he closed the trunk I noticed the Led Zepplin sticker on his window. It immediately reminded me of the line from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, "All you have to do is put in side two of Led Zepplin four and she's all yours." Now that may not be the exact quote but his reaction was priceless.
"What does side two mean?"
I then realized that CDs have only one side and my reply, "Just forget it." Last I heard he was living in the Bahamas playing the guitar, he is a hell of a guitar player.
We all get older and you never know when someone may be looking to you for advice. That's when I just listen. You shouldn't be surprised but if you sit and listen long enough everyone will tell you everything. That may be when you relate a personal story or just give advice that you think is right. We may not all have children but you never know when you might have to be a parent. I have an advantage in that department, the sun rises and sets on my parents, they're good.
And if you're my age and want a funny reaction, just tell someone who is much younger than you, how much you paid for a gallon of gas when you were in high school. Sixty-five cents for a gallon of regular, that's right there used to be this stuff called regular (leaded) gasoline.
My staff asked me one time what my first job was. When I told told them it was driving a slide of tobacco using a mule in Granville County, well I think you can guess the outcome of that one.

Always remember so you'll never forget

I watched a television show the other day that put me in mind of something that I have not thought about in a while. Where was I on September 11th 2001? I was a month or two away from my restaurant's one year anniversary. It was a beautiful day, as usual I was running around trying to figure out how two keep two nickles in my pocket to rub together. That's what I did every day since the place opened. Two ladies walked in and asked if I had heard what happened. The television that I had planned to mount in the cafe that was still in the back room was showing the aftermath of the first tower collapse. I then called my father and asked what he had heard and he said the twin towers had been hit. He was in his car and was listening to the radio.
"Well one is gone." I remember telling him. He did not believe me. It took me a few minutes, but he then realized what was happening. I then set up the TV in the cafe and then the second tower collapsed. I then sat and watched, along with a couple of handfuls of customers the replays of that morning's events. The tower being hit, the towers burning, people jumping out of them, and then the towers collapsing. Awful.
I remember driving home that day, it was a gorgeous day. The sun was setting, you know how it is in the fall. The orange sky with a purple hue and not one contrail from an airplane, which usually cross the sky like tic-tac-toe games. That was eerie. The world felt so small at that point. I felt so small at that point. As I drove I listened to the radio and heard the replay of the members of the House and Senate singing "America" on the steps of the Capitol. I pulled off on the side of highway 43 and wept.

At some point that day I received a phone call from a friend that I will never forget.
"Well, what do you think?" He asked
I snapped right back, "I think we are going to war."
He laughed and repeated my comment to someone else in the room and they both laughed, I was pissed.
"Going to war with who?" He managed in between giggles. "They don't have a country. It's not like they have a navy or an air force."
I took just a second, befuddled that someone my age could be so naive. "Well, you better believe that we're going to war with somebody."

Not many days go by that I don't remember that conversation, because we did go to war. Twice. And nine years later we are still there. Now I know that no one has "forgotten" about that day. But I think people don't like to think about it. The world changed that day. September the 11th, 2001 changed everything.
And as I sit here typing this, I think of philosopher/novelist George Santayana's quote, "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it it," I wonder if there is someone sitting in a cave planning the next one?
Oh, by the way, he is the same guy that wrote, "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

I'm wearing green but pinch me anyway, please

Okay, so I go to bed last night and I have a dream that my 89 year old grandfather, who has Alzheimer's, is missing. It is one of those dreams that feel very real, which if it is a bad dream, can be very unsettling. So I am not exactly the best employee at work the next day and I am sent home early. I drive two hours to see my grandfather, who is sitting in his chair like he always is. We visit and eventually I get a bowl of ice cream, I ask him if he wants some, sometimes he says yes, sometimes no. This time he says yes. We sit and talk, his repetitive questions are more frequent now, I still answer them like I haven't heard them before. He can remember, give or take a day, how long it has been since my last visit, which are more infrequent now I am sad to say. He asks if my father still works at the post office, which he never has. The stories he remembers with amazing accuracy are from his youth, which is kind of cool. Those are the stories I really enjoy. We sit and talk for a while and then I walk into the kitchen and my mother is there.
"What are you doing here?" She asks.
"Just having a bowl of ice cream with Pa Pa." I reply, yes at my age I still catch myself calling him that.
She gives me an awkward look, "But he is still missing. What are you talking about?"
I turn and quickly walk back into the room only to find my empty bowl of ice cream.
I wake up a little disturbed. It was all a dream.
Maybe it was my homemade spaghetti sauce I ate before I went to bed. Maybe I'm going crazy.
Today is St. Patrick's Day and I will be wearing green. But please still pinch me to remind me that I'm not dreaming.

Just a thought

I know it has been a while since my last post but in my defense I have been working about 60 hours a week. It seems to me that there has been a lot of loss lately and as we all get older we will have to deal with more of it. Now, I am, in no way depressed and I don't think there is anyone else in my life that is either. But life has a way of giving us examples on how to deal with it and how to act before our time comes. I will always remember a story I read in the News & Observer some time after 9/11. It was about a man from North Carolina who was in New York that morning. He was late for a meeting near the World Trade Center and snapped at the bell-hop because he felt the man was not trying hard enough to get him a cab. The building he was in collapsed and he was trapped under a stairwell, thinking he was going to die. All he could think about was how he treated that man at the hotel. He thought to himself that he was going to die and that man thought he was a jerk. He then realized, that if he made it out alive he was going to treat everyone as if he would never see them again. What a great philosophy. That is why I always tell my parents that I love them every time I talk to them. You never know. Always try to be a positive influence when ever you are around others you may never get another chance.