I am sitting at Starbucks.That is no surprise, really… I know.
I’m reading The Way The Crow Flies and mellowing out after a long day of hard work.
On the side of the paper cups, Starbucks prints those quotes and vignettes, have you seen these? They are called “The Way I See It.”
I like this one on the side of my vente americano. It’s #52, from singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter.
She says:
Recently I eavesdropped on a conversation between two twenty-something employees at a local Starbucks. I listened as the barista mused about his taste in music. Then the cashier asked him if he had ever heard the song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” After a pause, the barista answered, “No, can’t say I ever heard that one before.” That’s when I knew there really was such a thing as a generation gap.
I can so relate to what she is saying there.
A while ago a group of co-workers and I were on a coffee break. Sitting around a table, yapping.
To illustrate some illustrious point I was making at the time, I said, “Remember when the Space Shuttle exploded?”
One guy quickly said, “Well, it didn’t really explode so much as disintegrated when re-entering the earth’s atmosphere…..”
And I said, “No, no. Not that one. The other one. Before that!”
[Blank stares…..]
I continued, “Going the other way…. on LIFTOFF….. you know, a minute after launching and all, that one, remember that one?”
[Blank stares……]
That’s when I knew there really was such a thing as a generation gap.
************
Ouch. I remember the challenger. I was a senior in high school and was in English class when the guidance counselor came in to tell us. We happened to have a tv in the room so the teacher turned it on to watch the news. Then she made us write poems in honor of those who died.
ReplyDeleteGasp and double ouch! I was at work and watching the launch in a customer lounge and had a 5 year old in kindergarten at the time...
ReplyDeleteYes, well, I was totally sleeping when the Challenger disaster occurred.
ReplyDeleteMy mother came flying into my room screaming "Wake up! Wake up! One of those missiles exploded!"
I thought it was the end of the world, of course. I thought that a nuclear domino-effect was already in full swing and I had maybe ten seconds to live.
It was terrifying.
My dear old mom [because of her own generation gap, I guess] did not know that the Space Shuttle was called The Space Shuttle.
To her, it was a missile!
I ran to the TV and was horrified as I learned what had happened. Yet I was releived that what had happened was not what I THOUGHT was happening.