I dropped by the American Legion late Tuesday afternoon and had a beer with friends. A couple of notes:
Four of us were sitting at a table drinking our beers near
the exit door. A man leaving paused at
the door, looked at us and said, "Thank you!" And he left.
One of us said, "Why did he thank us?"
Another one of us, shrugged.
I had it. I said,
"Well, we are in the American Legion and it is a place for Veterans. We served our country."
"Oooooooh" they said nodding.
We should have returned the thanks, after all, he was there too.
One of the four men
sitting with us used to be the life guard at Larry Bell Park Swimming
Pool. His name is Charles. He said he celebrated his 80th birthday last
Saturday. Well, I knew he was several years older than
I, because he was an adult lifeguard
when I was in my preteen years.
It just never occurred to me he
was as old as 80, he didn't look it at all.
In fact, if someone said he was 65 I would think he looked young for his
age. And another thing amazing is his
memory is so sharp. He told of an
instance when he was applying for a beer license when he was the manager of the
Market Basket in the 1950s. He told the names of the people on the board
that approved the beer licenses and he remembered the city councilman Gene
Holcomb who was there at the time. I
thought that was remarkable that remembered such details.
Then I asked Charles how his daughter was doing that worked
at the post office for about a year. He
had to think for a few seconds and said he forgot she worked for the post
office. He said she quit because she
couldn't get a daytime job at the post office.
i told him I know how that was.
I was feeling a
little smug because I remembered something about his daughter that he had
forgotten.
Then, we got back talking about Gene Holcomb. Gene's son Larry Holcomb died in 2000. One of us said Larry was a young man when he
died.
Then I said, "He wasn't that young." I went on to say Larry and I are/were the
age. I said he died in the year
2000. I went on to say this is 2013, so that was 13 years ago. They were with me so far... and I said,
"I'm 75, so that makes him about 62 when he died." Nobody said anything. In fact, they all were unusually silent. Then, Jack said, "I didn't know you were
75?"
I am not 75, I am 71.
Why did I say 75?
Well, shit!