Reminiscing with Dad

A little fall vignette.

Not the best shot. It was a dark, rainy day and the light was not right. Shooting from the other side was worse. Blown out. Too much light from the window.

Meh.

But I love the cranberry velvet pumpkin.

__________

Had my dad over for dinner the other night. 

We got to talking about aging (that never goes anywhere good) and how much things have changed. We reminisced about days gone by and how simpler things were years ago. He told us about all the corner stores there were in the city he grew up in and the Man told us about corner stores in the town where he was raised. He told us about a candy/soda shoppe that only sold ice cream on one side and had a candy counter on the other side.

That sounded pretty perfect to me.

It was a different time back then. Big box stores didn't exist to the extent they do today. It seems like Amazon and Wal-Mart are taking over the world. The little mom and pop shops are getting harder and harder to find. It's pretty rare to find a shop with the owner running it. Dad said most of the stores from his childhood were run by the owner, who would sometimes be the only one working.

Then Dad said something that made me tear up. He said, "I feel like the world passed me by about 25 years ago." And the look on his face was wistful.

I wanted to tell him to let it. Things are more complicated now. It's tiresome trying to keep up with all the changes. My attitude is to keep up enough for life to work but that's it. I embrace some digital things, but not all. I'm on some social networks, but not all. And I shop at some big box stores, but not all. I try to buy local and from the mom and pops. Just because the world is racing by, it doesn't mean I have to run with it.

And finally, I'm going to reminisce with Dad as much as I can. He's comfortable in those memories and so am I.

Love you, Dad.