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On the topic of old people
By Braden | May 8, 2008
I do some volunteer work every once in a while at a local “Rest Home”. Rest home is a very appropriate name because all people do there is rest, at least that I can tell. They get comfy roll-a-beds and wheelchairs and motorized scooters and spine-stabilizing neck braces. But despite how rest ful it is, it’s still a pretty dismal place. Each time I go I don’t know who to feel worse for, the people who I recognize, the people who I don’t, or the people that those people replaced. In any case, at least they’re getting some rest.
On this last trip as I was walking in I overheard some janitorial ladies talking. There is a little pool in front of the building which used to have some large goldfish in it, but that changed. As these ladies were netting out several of the sideways-floating bodies, I hear them jabbering away in spanish saying, “C-P-R, C-P-R” and then cackling hysterically. This presents several disconcerting points:
1. A normal goldfish lives from the time you pick it out at the petshop until you are almost ready to give it to your child. The self-destruct mechanism goes off when the goldfish can see a fishbowl (or vase). But the fish at the rest home weren’t those little time-bombs, and the life expectancy should be much longer. So seeing more than five die at one time is not a good sign.
2. If goldfish are dying off and all you really need to do is feed them, it’s no wonder that there are new faces every time I visit.
3. Old people smell funny. I know this is only loosely related but it’s still disconcerting. Especially since we still haven’t figured out what causes it.
4. Cackling. Cackling is always disconcerting, no matter who it’s coming from.
Old People smell comes from cologne that was purchased when they had money..decades ago…and may have smelled ok then, but now has gone rancid but they can’t afford to replace it.
Posted by: mom on May 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm