The Ninety-Third...

Number Ninety-Three:


Masonic Home of Virginia, Lunch, Hawaiian Gardenburger

One of the things I jokingly tell people when I describe my job is that it is great because "I get to drive around all day, read stories to kids and help old ladies up the stairs." The old ladies up the stairs bit is the zinger of the joke, but it really is a wonderful thing to get to know your elders, especially ones that are in their 80s and up. The stories they tell are definitely of a different world, but also with a different wisdom. World War I, II, letters were written to people, people belonged to this club and that, went out to balls and parties --just a world that memories were made with brains that weren't flashed every minute with advertisement, or a text message or a need to check your facebook. I mean sure, things were no walk in the park back then either, but I think more brain power was used and people didn't have as much of a sense of entitlement. There was more awareness than just the personal "bubble" we all live in now. Not waxing a romanticism for the old days at all, I am just saying that they have better memories and are wonderful storytellers.

What will our children tell their offspring? "Oh, this one time when Cindy took Bobby's cellphone by accident and then meant to text Bobby during the movie and oh wow, it looked like Bobby texted himself when it was really Cindy trying to text Bobby! Then we all went to Starbucks!" --barf.

Anyway, the Bookmobile crew had lunch with some of our patrons at one of our retirement home stops; the Masonic Home. We had gone a few years ago and it took a while to get this one together. But wow, we were given the grand treatment by them; the private dining table, all the food we wanted and just good company, hearing stories of how they came to be here. One used to own a restaurant on Forest Hill Avenue for 25 years, another lived near there and used to eat there with her husband, another was from Germany but married a GI and moved here, her name is Teddy. Teddy was more than happy to do a Napstache with me, no explanation was needed either, it just looked like a fun, silly thing to do. She even did another one on her own for me!




Fun-loving gal. After we were finished and left the cafeteria, Teddy took us to her room and we sat and chatted and heard stories about her town in Germany and how she came to meet her husband, who had passed in 1986. She had a teddy bear on her small bed, a gift from her husband during a romantic young time in her life. It had a real fur around it's neck and she told us he named it Lord Fluffybottom. !!! HA! Storytelling gold! Chatting with people like this is such a nice insight to people who have come before us that we often ignore and we damn well shouldn't. They are the best storytellers and boy, have such great stories to tell.
Anyway, great stache!

Teddystache!