Sunday, June 06, 2004
The Day Reagan Died...
The great communicator has gone gently into the early morning. Out here on West Coast time, Saturday is the day of condensed communication. The carloads of male and female couples alike, hit the early dawn freeways. All the day to day struggle and strife contained all week, pent up is here. Things that were too burdensome to speak of in an earlier less uncomfortable moment, get condensed into 10 second sound bites on the errand run bandwagon.
"I told you the reason I got home late on Wed.was for that meeting." Stop light.
"I don't have time to tell you everything." Drop off check at the bank.
"Did you hear a word I just said?" Stop by Trader Joe's for fat free milk.
"I said skim milk." Stop by Home Depot to pick up something for the lawn.
"You picked up something for the lawn last week. Why do we need to stop by there again?"
And around and around the draddle goes as Saturday morning falls quickly into late afternoon tired bones as sleep begins to beg for catch up.
"All I want to do is take a nap."
"You promised that we would go tonight."
"I know what I said."
"Do you keep you're promises?"
"Yes I keep my promises."
The radio in the car announces Reagan's passing.
This radio memorial moment is for the fathers from every lawn kept neighborhood that had voted for him (twice), and every kid who got the shit scared out of them from the message of saying no to drugs would grant entrance into a life of immortality. Len Bias's death, and Nancy Regan's appearance on Different Strokes solidified this notion.
Twenty years later...they found themselves driving around LA struggling to communicate the few words left in the vocabulary that made sense to each other.
The great communicator has gone gently into the early morning. Out here on West Coast time, Saturday is the day of condensed communication. The carloads of male and female couples alike, hit the early dawn freeways. All the day to day struggle and strife contained all week, pent up is here. Things that were too burdensome to speak of in an earlier less uncomfortable moment, get condensed into 10 second sound bites on the errand run bandwagon.
"I told you the reason I got home late on Wed.was for that meeting." Stop light.
"I don't have time to tell you everything." Drop off check at the bank.
"Did you hear a word I just said?" Stop by Trader Joe's for fat free milk.
"I said skim milk." Stop by Home Depot to pick up something for the lawn.
"You picked up something for the lawn last week. Why do we need to stop by there again?"
And around and around the draddle goes as Saturday morning falls quickly into late afternoon tired bones as sleep begins to beg for catch up.
"All I want to do is take a nap."
"You promised that we would go tonight."
"I know what I said."
"Do you keep you're promises?"
"Yes I keep my promises."
The radio in the car announces Reagan's passing.
This radio memorial moment is for the fathers from every lawn kept neighborhood that had voted for him (twice), and every kid who got the shit scared out of them from the message of saying no to drugs would grant entrance into a life of immortality. Len Bias's death, and Nancy Regan's appearance on Different Strokes solidified this notion.
Twenty years later...they found themselves driving around LA struggling to communicate the few words left in the vocabulary that made sense to each other.
# posted by DH @ 11:10 PM 
