I was sitting at a Sheetz up on Aviation Blvd with a couple of friends, as nowhere else was operational (it is Thanksgiving night, after all). Anyway, we sit there drinking our beverages. As time passes, we see a motley parade of characters; a couple of cops, a man in a turban with a baller beard, a couple of whore-ish looking girls, some gangly looking fellows, and the single sketchiest thing I may have ever seen. I shall elaborate.
This black Lincoln Towncar pulls up (in the middle of two handicap spaces, with a cop parked LITERALLY ONE SPOT AWAY) and three guys get out. Said three guys are all wearing black leather jackets, dark jeans, and a couple days scruff. They then all go inside the Sheetz. The cop follows. When they come back out, the car pulls back into that spot (it had backed away after their exit) and then drives off. You had to be there.
But anyway, that wasn’t my point. My point was, on this fine Thanksgiving night, I saw a man get out of a shuttle van for the airport and go inside. He came out a couple minutes later with a coffee and proceeded to sit down and smoke a cigarette. This gentleman was in the neighborhood of 70 I’d wager, and I’ve never seen anyone look more depressed in my life. Here he is, nearing the end of his stay on this earth, alone on Thanksgiving night smoking a cigarette and drinking coffe. Did I mention he was alone? He coughed a few times too. After he was done, he just got back in his van and drove off. I was struck by the profound sadness I sensed from him. Here my friends and I were, sitting at a Sheetz because oh lets see, we were fucking bored and wanted fountain Coke. Here this guy was sitting alone because he had no choice, maybe no family to go to anyway.
My point is, old people can have it rough if they aren’t in the spot they want to be. That’s why I aim to make my proceeding life as interesting as possible so that if a time comes where I am in a similar situation, I’ll be sitting there thinking about how much more exciting my life was than those teenagers has been, and how many awesome experiences I have under my belt. Like Jean-Paul Sartre said “If you are bored when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.” Or something like that.
Originally posted to Tumblr on November 26, 2010
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