By David Rose
As you may know, I attend the Unitarian Universalist Church out on Spring Street here in Hot Springs. We don’t have a preacher; we all just take turns. A woman recently took to the podium to talk about those faceless people in our lives. Waiters, shelf stockers, cashiers; the people who stood by us during the pandemic. “We should not forget them now,” she said. “Give them a kind word when they serve your meal or ring up your purchases.”
A few days later I was self-checking in a large grocery store and had in my basket, among other things, a bottle of wine. I signaled the associate, a young man in his early twenties. He came over and checked the date of birth on my driver’s license.
“1948,” he said. “I thought you were younger.” I was liking this kid already, and not just because of the flattery. His was a boring and methodical job and yet here he was trying to make a game out of it to keep his mind active. He was challenging himself to guess the age of every patron who called for his assistance.
“Yes,” I said in an attempt to extend the conversation and connect with him as an individual. “Did you know that Orville Wright was still alive in 1948?” He looked puzzled for a few beats and then beamed. “Oh yeah, you mean the popcorn guy.”
For all I know, the Wright Brothers have been canceled and are no longer taught in school, or maybe this kid was absent that day. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
David Malcolm Rose is back again, this time as a painter. His “Life in the Tim of Corona” series will be showing at the Artist’s Workshop Gallery on Central beginning with the July gallery walk.
