The clock is ticking...

"...I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee."

- John Donne, 

Devotions upon 

Emergent Occasions

As we walked into Jerry Bob’s Family Restaurant, I had a sense of déjà vu…maybe even all over again!

“BL” – before lunch…

We had come into Tucson earlier in the week.  It was the first time I had gotten to see the work done on our ‘soon to be’ new home.  Molly has a lot of skill sets, but one I really admire is her ability to work with, direct and understand, plumbers, electricians, carpenters and other professionals that do things to houses…a reflection of her training as an engineer.

For most of the 30 plus years we lived in Missouri, our dwelling was a 100 year old farm house, that by the time we moved in was no longer in the country, but in the city.  That old thing took a lot of tender loving care making and keeping it livable.  It took constant maintenance – hence her talent for working with tradesmen. 

Often, when she was out and a project in progress, a worker would say he had a question and wondered where she was.  I would say, “What’s the question,” and almost without exception – and I mean WITHOUT exception – they would give me ‘the look’ and respond, “That’s okay, I’ll wait for her.”  Yes sir, if you want to find out your real place in life, have a man working for you, tell you your wife is the ‘go to person’ on project.  It is a humbling experience…I have had many!!

Lunch, that’s it…

Jerry Bob’s – that’s where this started before I got sidetracked.  As we pulled into a parking spot in front of the restaurant, the temperature read 105 degrees (40.5C) – at that temperature, there is NO DRY HEAT!!  We’ve been told we’ll get used to it.  Maybe, but it’s is mid-September with temperatures trending down and it’s still this hot – trending down?…are you kidding me??!!

The restaurant had a large single room filled with tables and booths.   The booths lined the walls both to the left and to the right.  On the left side of the room, another row of double booths separated by a partition added more room to sit.  Center right were four-top tables with chairs facing each other from opposite sides…the kitchen in the rear, separated by a wall and door.

The motif was…well, there really wasn’t much motif.  Light brownish earth tone paint provided a little color to the interior walls sparsely covered with nondescript cowboy/western painting reproductions around the room and inside the booths.  Along the wall to the right in bright letters read ‘Jerry Bob’s Family Style Restaurant’ with an “In business since….” in smaller letters below.

There was the low hum of people chattering with one another, mostly in groups of four and a scattering of two and three folk per table or booth.  We were hungry, so other than coming in and finding a booth in the back, there wasn’t much to notice other than the plainness of the place.  One had the feeling that if Jerry Bob faulted on his lease, the space could be emptied and replaced with a clothing store in an afternoon.

With menus in the booth, a cheerful, just on the edge of being cocky, young fellow came to ask about drinks and get our order.  Now that we were settled, I began to look around a little.  In the booth across the way were four older men chatting about golf.  As my eyes drifted to group in the next booth, there were three more senior citizens, the booth after that four more and the final booth next to the window a man and his wife, also somewhat ‘mature.’  I was beginning to see a pattern.  I looked over the partition separating us from the main part of the restaurant and saw pretty much nothing but older people – they were everywhere! 

I said to Molly, “All these people are old!!”  She gently replied, “This IS Tucson after all, and by the way have you looked in the mirror?  You are one of them!”  “Holy cow,” I thought, “I have walked into a restaurant full of classmates from my 45^th – soon to be 50^th – high school reunion!!!”  You would have to be in my brain, but it was kind of surreal.

Reality bites…

There are not many things that remind me of my age.  I suppose it is partly that I have continued to find creative things to do and I’m fortunate to be busy.  Things that get my attention, however, are when I hear that a friend’s children are in their twenties and thirties when they had been frozen in my mind as children.  Or, when one of my friends talks about a great grandchild – Wait!!  What??!! Really?? 

I haven’t yet in my life had, or found the time to hang out with buddies in the middle of the day grabbing a bite to eat and talking about golf or baseball or football or whatever.  Having said that, I am certainly in the age category to where I could be doing that sort of thing.  Perhaps when you don’t see it around you, it ‘doesn’t exist’ until…until it is in front of you and gets your attention.

Time and gravity…

Jerry Bob’s food was pretty good.  That waiter turned out to actually be a pleasant young man, AND the youngest fellow in the place.  I suppose the luncheon adventure was a bit of a cold shower…a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’…a small ‘come to Jesus’ moment.  I walked into that place hungry and ageless…at least from the standpoint of the way I feel and live my life.  While I may not be quite ready for ‘the coffee klatch culture,’ I walked out of the place a 66 year-old man realizing I wasn’t really any different than any of those guys having lunch and hanging out…except that my ‘hangout partner’ was a good deal better looking!

Déjà vu all over again?  Probably not, but it was a reminder that time marches on no matter what one thinks of it.  When we left Jerry Bob’s I felt a little older…wiser??  I’m not so sure.

ted

Ps to Molly:  When I look in the mirror I see an old thing that needs a lot of tender loving care making and keeping it (him) livable…one of her many gifts.