From Generation to Generation
“Just think about it, a blizzard this time of year. I can’t understand it! But I see the handwriting on the wall. We’re not going anywhere any time soon.”
“What writing on what wall? What do you mean? First time flying? These things happen, mister, so you need to chill, take out your MP3 player or whatever, and make the best of it. Where are you going, anyway?”
“What’s an MP3 player? And yes, after bein’ around ninety-two years this past spring, it’s my first time flyin’—if I make it on the plane. I have a sick brother in Toledo.”
“Sorry about your brother. Here, listen. This plays all my music. I don’t suppose you know what rap is, do you? Oops, sorry, that’s my phone. I gotta take this call. Hi, dad. I’m still at the airport in Minneapolis. You got the letter? Go ahead read it to me . . . Oh no! Give me a few minutes, I’ll call back.”
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. What’s wrong?”
“They turned me down. I just heard from the grad school I wanted. I didn’t make it.”
“Look, it’s none of my business, but you can’t let a set back get to you. When I was your age, I went into dry cleaning in Red Wing. I borrowed the money, then my partner cleaned me out, if you get me, and disappeared. You just got to pick yourself up and start over. You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.”
“My grandad used to say that. Thanks for the advice. Hey, can I take your picture?”
“Sure you can, but you don’t have a camera.”
“My smartphone has a camera. They all do, you know.”
“In my day you didn’t walk around with a phone in your pocket, or read a book on a TV screen you hold in your hand like that girl over there showed me. We had real books, encyclopedias on the shelf. How do you even find out things nowadays?”
“It’s pretty much all online.”
“Online you say. That’s why I don’t have a ticket. They said I shoulda gone online for that. Bet they won’t let me on. It don’t matter anyhow because the way things are going I’ll probably meet my maker before we ever get out of here!”
Howard Richard Debs received a University of Colorado Poetry Prize at age 19. After fifty years in the field of communications, with recognitions including a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America, he has recently resumed his literary pursuits, and his latest work appears or is forthcoming in Poetica Magazine, Misfitmagazine, Eclectica Magazine, Star 82 Review,Ardor Literary Magazine, Belle Reve Literary Journal, and China Grove. He lives in sunny South Florida.
You can find him at http://communicatorsandcommunications.com/
