the Requiest

Ed is the morning teller at the Burger King drive thru that I sometimes hit on my way in to work. We’ve both seen each other enough times now that we have established a friendly acquaintance that allows for a hearty, “have a nice day” that actually has some heartfelt meaning behind it.

Now Ed is an older gentleman (I’d guess pushing close to 70), balding, a little short and a bit on the portly side. Given that he works at a Burger King I’ve sometimes wondered if this is his semi-retired gig. I mean you just can’t live around here on the kind of change a teller is going to make at a quick food palace. So the other day when he mentions to me that he won’t be here next week because he’ll be in Hawaii I was a bit taken back. So I bluntly asked him, “What did you do in your former life that you’re able to afford to go to Hawaii?”

His answer is the kind that always blows my mind, because it just shreds what ever assumption you may have developed based on someone’s looks or current financial situation. Apparently when Ed was a younger man in the early 60′s he was a French translator with the military stationed in Hawaii. He was there as a translator during some atomic bomb testing. While stationed there he picked up surfing. Now we didn’t have time to really chat long but the little he did say made it sound like Ed really turned into a bit of a surfing bum.

Now as to how that leads to going back to Hawaii. According to Ed once you hit retirement age in surfing circles you become a judge. So Ed is heading to Hawaii all expenses paid to judge a surfing contest.

Go figure.

I love talking to older people and hearing some of their stories. They never fail to dispel what ever notions I’ve concocted of them.