Vic Damone and the Old White Man

Before I jump into a story, I have a thought.

I know that most of the free world is wondering "Why Heath Ledger? Why not Britney?"

I have the simple answer. Did you see the over done coverage of Ledger on television yesterday? Now imagine if Britney overdosed. Barack, Hillary and McCain wouldn't be seen on the tube for weeks.
----------

I got up to go back to the HyVee salad bar for seconds. That salad bar is my favorite lunch spot. Just $5 for all you might possibly want in a salad and fruit, and then some.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So I get up to head back to the bar for some fruit, and this elderly white man speaks to me before I can take a step. He had to be at least 80 or so.

"Hello," he says.

I respond by asking him how he's doing. I told him I'd be right back, that I was just going to get some water. And that's what I did, skip the fruit. I was curious as to where our talk might go.

So I came right back, and what followed was one of the more intriguing conversations I've ever engaged in as an adult.

You see, I had my computer out so I could finish a few things up. He questioned why I had the computer, and said "I couldn't work any of that stuff no matter how hard I tried."

"If you gave me the time time I could teach you," I said.

My cell phone start chirping. It was a text message about a business meeting I had scheduled.

"And those things, what ever happened to just talking to people, like we're doing here," he question? "I guess our generation are just supposed to be different."

"That they are. "

"In my day, it was all about face to face communication. You talked to people, like we're doing."

"I still subscribed to that."

"But most people don't. What went wrong?"

Of course I had an answer.

"I think people go to college and understand that they're in a progressive environment, and they could talk to anyone. I know that's how I felt. I probably met 100 people my first two days at school. But when you leave that environment and head to back to the real world, you realize it's not as inviting. People close up. They're guarded."

"I can see that," he said. "But I just don't see how people just don't talk to each other. It's not hard."

It's certainly not.

Ed's Note: Part two of the conversation comes tomorrow.