Back With Our People

 Speaking of bed times (which is where I ended a blog a couple months ago) recently after a pizza party with all the grandchildren, my four-year-old granddaughter Gwen announced that she was planning on staying up late. At my age, I was almost ready for bed myself. So I asked, “How late are you staying up?”

“Lots,” she responded. That's sounded as vague as what my other grandson said when I asked his bedtime (He said he goes to bed “at some point”).

But our St. Louis family has now gone home after their summer visit here and we don't have to worry about grandchildren keeping us up past our own bedtime. I will miss Gwen's wry humor. For example, for one dinner my wife Wendy made a wonderfully delicious meal that incorporated chicken, zucchini, garlic, corn starch, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes and various spices.

“What do you call this?” I asked my wife.

“It's chicken,” Gwen interjected matter-of-factly.

Now, with Wendy and I being the sole occupants of our house again and with Covid restrictions easing in our state, we're venturing out to more group activities that include our fellow senior citizens. Being vaccinated, our major worry now is not the virus but whether we're going to be required to wear masks where we go. Though masks are not required anywhere in Michigan, you still see people wearing them everywhere.

Wendy did encounter a sign when she entered the local post office stating that masks were required but another customer going in at the same time told her they weren't required there. He did add that if you go into a bank wearing a mask, hat and sun glasses, you may be asked to remove the hat and glasses. A few years ago it might have been the reverse. Such a changed world we live in now.

So we attended our local senior citizen center's annual summer picnic which had been canceled last year. We brought masks just in case but few if any people were wearing them. What was nice about this picnic was that the food was provided free by a local memory care and assisted living center. Seniors like us enjoy the free stuff.

The nursing home administrator, a cheery fellow who said he enjoyed getting out of the office for this event, sat at our table. He explained that the boxed lunches which included macaroni salad, turkey mini-sub sandwich, snack bag and cookie were prepared by his chef. I felt he was doing a little pitch for his employer as he dined with us.

In fact, when the picnic was wrapping up, he said to those at our table, “I hope to see you at the center soon.” That was a bit jarring. I know some of us have aged as we've hunkered down during this pandemic, but did we really look like we were on the cusp of needing nursing home care? A gentleman at our table asked this question directly to which the administrator said he meant that he hoped to see us all at the senior citizens center.

“Thanks for clarifying that,” responded the gentleman who asked the question.

I felt thankful as well.