ye olde fogies.
Those EFY kids.
I was finishing lunch and they were starting. They started to congregate around me in clusters of church dress and lunch sacks on the grass. I drank carrot juice because it is delicious and vegetably. And because I am an old fart.
One boy stands up, braces himself, and begins shouting to his small neck-tied posse. His group is fringed by skinny girls in flowered skirts. He shouts to the whole group playfully. He is scared out of his wits.
"Raise your hand if you've been to EFY before!"
Two girls toward the back of the cluster smooth their skirts, flick their hair, and raise their skinny wrists into the air coolly.
He bobs his head in approval. Another boy asks him if he's been before.
"Nope. I'm fourteen" he admits, "but goin' on fifteen! Goin' right on to fifteen!"
A flutter of conversation, then he shouts again, "When I'm like 23 I'll be saying like, 'But I just turned 23!' But that's when I'm way old, definitely."
And that's when I decided to let the young whippersnappers have the lawn to themselves. I tossed my empty carrot juice carton and headed off to the library to... read...
I was finishing lunch and they were starting. They started to congregate around me in clusters of church dress and lunch sacks on the grass. I drank carrot juice because it is delicious and vegetably. And because I am an old fart.
One boy stands up, braces himself, and begins shouting to his small neck-tied posse. His group is fringed by skinny girls in flowered skirts. He shouts to the whole group playfully. He is scared out of his wits.
"Raise your hand if you've been to EFY before!"
Two girls toward the back of the cluster smooth their skirts, flick their hair, and raise their skinny wrists into the air coolly.
He bobs his head in approval. Another boy asks him if he's been before.
"Nope. I'm fourteen" he admits, "but goin' on fifteen! Goin' right on to fifteen!"
A flutter of conversation, then he shouts again, "When I'm like 23 I'll be saying like, 'But I just turned 23!' But that's when I'm way old, definitely."
And that's when I decided to let the young whippersnappers have the lawn to themselves. I tossed my empty carrot juice carton and headed off to the library to... read...