Any given morning will find upwards of 30 residents sitting in the lounges, chatting, busy with puzzles, gossiping and drinking coffee. Sometimes there are many more than that and the place becomes noisy and crowded. We sometimes drift down, grab a cuppa at the counter and look for friends. Then we sit down and join the action, or inaction, for an hour or so.
This morning was no different. I had some work to finish off and at about 11:00 I went to the lounge. I found one person sitting there: my wife, reading the morning papers.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Where is everyone today?”
“I’ve no idea. Not a soul has come in here all morning.”
We scratched our heads and went up to our apartment. Only when I switched the TV to see the lunchtime news did the penny drop – “Superstorm Sandy!” I yelled. “That’s where everyone was this morning! They’re all glued to their TV sets watching the storm flattening New York!”
We were amazed at the level of interest.
Don’t underrate us old guys. We know what’s going on. We’ve been around so long we don’t make a fuss of these things. True, we haven’t seen a Hurricane Sandy before but we are old enough and wise enough to expect anything. We read the papers, listen to the radio and watch the TV – when we can keep awake, that is. In casual conversations with some of the residents I sometimes ask, “So what are you reading now?” And the answer I in variably get is, “Oh I haven’t the patience to read books any more. I stick to the papers these days, Time or Newsweek, you know…”
So we may miss out on the best sellers but we’re up on the news!