24 - Sunday, July 3, 1994 - Narth Shore News

Facing, reluctantly, the clumsiness of living

Eleanor

THE VINTAGE YEARS

WHAT WOULD we do if

we didn’t have all this

baggage from the past?

Everything we do, we old
: folks —- everything in our lives,
_ operates on two levels. We live
. in the now, boggled half the

time, but in the past at the same
time, always recalling, always
comparing: “Hey, that isn’t how
we used to doit” or “Aren’t you
glad you don’t have to go down
to the cellar for that?”

It makes us rich in content.
and we should be exploiting it a
: lot more than we do, enriching .
the world, making use of all we
experienced.

Instead, we fret that we're -
not just out of date, we're out of
sync and the world is losing
depth and background. Here's a
- classic example. Take my
undershirt. Its dominion was
determined when I was but a
child.

The horrid thing went on in
October and it was not to be
shed until May was out. I hated

it. It spelled winter, and winter
was hard on kids in those days
in that place.

It also multiplied the whole
clumsiness of living.

Everything was so thick and
heavy and serious in the dark
winter days. And yet I still
faithfully get the thing out in the
fall and subject myself to its
bulk until the end of May,
resenting it all the while I what-
if about flu and rheumatism and
a cold in the head.

This year, with the rotten
spring, I didn’t get rid of it till
Father’s Day.

Elderly ladies don’t discuss
their underwear so no one was
made aware of my discombobu-
lation either at home or at my
little job. And anyway, as far as
the works of this newspaper are
concemed, I am a very minor
player.

However, there’s been seri-
ous change going on here that
requires some adjustment even
from my small corner.

I was doubly flustered now.
Not only was my aging body
putting sand in the works, but I
was also being challenged by
my editor to get with it, kiddo,
this is the future.

He was asking me, oh very
gently, he was being very con-
siderate, but still asking me :o
give up bringing my copy t»
him on four typed sheets.

All he needed from now cn,
he said, was the disk from my
word-processor each week,

Gulp. I’ve always been
proud of properly prepared
offerings of my deathiess prose.
Just handing over the diskette
didn’t seem to have the same

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panache, somehow.

Fortunately I’m also crazy
about my word-processor. It’s
magic. I prefer not to be sepa-
rated from it for more than a
few hours.

Ido my column and I write
letters both formal and friendly
and there's a small children’s
book stored in it along with
some observations from life, but
it has talents | don’t feel the
need to get into. Maybe some
day.

But as our relationship
stands, I am happy and grateful
for the skills it performs so
effortlessly and I'm not at all
anxious to trouble my poor old
head beyond the basics.

Whien it comes down to it,
really all I’m being asked to do
is deliver each column on its
own disk. As things are, 1 make
my copy, I deliver it to the edi-
torial department, then someone
has to type it into what the
machinery can read.

This way, that re-typing
sequence is discarded, things go

faster and more efficiently.

OK, it’s plainly a sensible
move, I'll do it. Dipping my toe
into the future.

Wow. So it’s done, not with-
out trepidation on my part. I fig-
ure I’ve got the hang of it, that
wasn't so bad, settle down and
do it, baby.

Then what happens? He

writes me a note, asking me to
please give up my indentations.

What next?

it doesn't matter a hoot,
though. Indentations don’t fit
the future and out they go.

Well, never let it be said that
the darkened door was my fault.
I'll just keep my indentations to
myself.

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