Old Men Everywhere

The bigger my playground, the less unique I become. I once ran a car out of oil, assuming the warning light was defective. When using the story to motivate others not to ignore warning lights of life, audience members often confess similar incidents of blowing up their engines. While Blogging, I discovered others also learned to drive a stick shift by driving one off a car lot, killing and revving it up in embarrassing stutter bursts through traffic. My story of crashing into one family car with the other one is also shared. In my small circle, I was always the one who owned such incidents. On Tuesday, I read a wonderful post by Beetley Pete where a young boy shouted at him, “Old Man, old man.” The boy wanted to tell him that he liked his dog. Later that very same day, I was swimming in the community pool when a young boy interrupted my path to the shallower end where I could stand up. He surfaced, looking like he might be wearing goggles for the fist time because he exclaimed, “Old man, I saw your legs underwater!” Since no fish were in the pool water, I guess my legs were the most interesting thing to see. I was too stunned to remember Pete’s clever response: “How did you know my name?” Instead I just replied, “Yes you did.” I glanced at the woman sitting on the edge of the Pool who ignored the exchange. My 17 year old grandson was within earshot and was so amused that I recognized a new Blog opportunity. Unfortunately it had just been taken! But the incredible coincidence of timing and my desperate need for material convinced me to squeeze out a post from my own angle.