The Lost Generation

My mother's generation is always lost.  None of the brothers and sisters have any sense of direction.   I could not drop my mother at a mall and expect her to find the ntrance later so that I could pick her up.  We learned to find mall entrances that were named.  That way she could ask people how to find that exit and know when she reached the correct exit where I would be waiting.  Usually, I just went with her.  It was much faster because I could go directly to whatever store she wanted to shop in.  I found out that alone she meandered through the mall periodically asking directions and backtracking frequently.  She was not disturbed by this, I think, because she had done it for too many years.

My mother is gone, but her younger sisters and two brothers survive.  I keep an eye on my 88 year old aunt., Sue.  Sue lives alone, still works three days a week, and is even worse than my mother about directions.  In the grocery store, she will turn back to the aisle she has previously visited because she has no sense of which overall way she should be heading.  I shop with her just to save time.  Sue has shopped in the same store for the last five years but will still get lost.  She copes well.  She simply heads in one direction until she reaches a landmark or an employee.

As it turns out, the men are just as directionally challenged.  When my grandmother died at age 96, all her sons and daughters were alive and came to the cemetery located in a very rural area of Central Texas.  Her three sons decided to visit the old home place (where they grew up) which was not far from the cemetery.  When the rest of the family realized the three planned to go together, intervention was called for.  My uncle by marriage was dispatched to go with them and to bring them back to the church where a luncheon had been prepared.  Lunch was well underway before my uncles returned.   My uncle by marriage came in and sat down with a sigh. "I will never do that, again.  Joe(my grandmother's middle son) can't drive and none of them know where they are or where they are going."

Photo by Lewsisms

Now to the present.  I usually take my Aunt Sue shopping, but in the last week I have been ill and told by my doctor to take it easy.  My cousin,Gene, 55, who is profoundly autistic, was home with his mother, my Aunt Sue, for a week.  My aunt and my cousin were invited to swim at Kathy's (another cousin's) home.  All went well with swimming and pizza.  Then. my uncle, Ralph, who lives with his daughter, Kathy, and her husband, offered to take Aunt Sue, his sister, home.  Sue asked if they could stop by Walmart on the way home.  "No problem,' Ralph responded.  Kathy overheard and took action.  She told her father how to get to the store and carefully wrote out the directions to the Walmart nearest Sue's apartment.  The store was on the way to Sue's apartment.  She handed Uncle Ralph the directions.  He insisted they were not necessary, but she made him take them.

Ralph, Sue and Gene (in the back seat) headed to Walmart.  Soon they were nearing the area where the store should be located. Neither Ralph or Sue could remember Kathy's directions, neither really knew where they were, and neither could find the written directions.  With Gene (who cannot speak)  protesting, but unable to tell them they were off course, they continued on.  At the time, Ralph and Sue assumed Gene wanted to go home.  Later, it dawned on my aunt that he had known they had missed Walmart.  Gene quieted, I am sure realizing that he could not help.  After several attempts at finding the store, they gave up and proceeded to Sue's apartment with the aid of  Ralph's GPS device.  Only there did they find Kathy's carefully written instructions.  My aunt had been sitting on them the whole time.

The saga of the lost generation continues.

(Names changed to protect the directionally challenged.)

Austin Presidential Debates

The Democrats are holding a debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Austin, Texas. There will be 100 tickets available for the public. The spokesman for the Democratic Party said on television that the number was limited because of safety concerns. If I used profanity, I would use it now. Barack Obama has had huge rallies in Austin. Hillary Clinton has been drawing crowds all over Texas. The tickets to the public are not limited because of safety concerns. The tickets to the public are limited because the Democratic Party in Texas wants to hand out these tickets to their select, just as old party bosses handed out favors in years past.

The Democratic Party in Texas has been so afraid of offending the Republican majority that they offer only token opposition. The Democratic Party in Texas is a hollow shell filled with politicians of questionable merit.
The party structure does not want new ideas or new blood that might upset the status quo. They do know how to make money: you can buy tickets to a private debate viewing party.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton obviously don't want the public either. I am sure they will reward big money donors with tickets. Whatever their rhetoric, their true constituencies will be there, the wealthy and the well-connected. The poor, the handicapped, the elderly will not be allowed. The audience must have the proper image.

I will vote for the Democratic candidate for President because of the potential to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court. I doubt that once elected that they will do anything for most people. Just like tickets to the debate, benefits will go to business and the well-connected.