Adult Children by Stephen Beals for April 15, 2024

Nobody’s home

Well, let me tell you ’bout the way she looked

The way she’d act and the color of her hair, her voice was soft and cool

Her eyes were clear and bright, but she’s not there! (The Zombies)

Then who are you talking to?

Nobody you can see.

I was a cashier years ago when a majority of people still paid with checks. If I had someone come to my register, talking on their cell phone, and paying with a check I would hit a button on my register that required me to ask for ID. They would then have to interrupt their conversation to hunt through their purse or wallet and get out their ID so I could enter their driver’s license number. It was petty but it just annoyed me that people would talk on the phone while in line.

It used to be we wondered about the sanity of people wandering around talking to the sky….now we…..yeah, we still should wonder about their sanity

The lights are on but nobody’s home

When those earbuds first came out I thought a guy was talking to a can of soup at the grocery store.

About the time cellphones first became popular and affordable, I was eating a picnic lunch while sitting on a bench on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

For the ten minutes it took to finish my sandwich and fruit, I had to listen to a guy behind me talking.

“Yeah … Well, that’s not what’s going happen … No way … Yeah, just try it … I’m not afraid of you…”

As I got up to walk away, I looked over my shoulder. The guy was still talking and HE DIDN’T HAVE A CELLPHONE!I walked away MUCH faster.

“You say yes…I say no. You say stop….and I say go, go, go!! Oh No! You say goodbye and I say …hello!”

Attagirl Tabby! Put her in her place!

And, naturally enough nobody is listening or gives a danm (stupid bloody badly programmed censor bot) about what she’s saying.