The Airport...Always A Wake-Up

"I tol' her not to open the door.  I was NAKED!"

At last, a cell phone conversation worthy of my eavesdropping ears.  I settle in for some aural titillation only to have her turn her back and blend with the myriad muffled and incredibly insipid phone calls surrounding me as I wait for my plane at Lambert St. Louis airport.

I've been in Illinois for most of a week watching the corn commit suicide on the farm my brother and I own.  The situation is dire.  Fortunately we have crop insurance but that won't stop the coming rise in prices for most everything we eat.  Cereal, sweeteners, chicken, eggs, and beef will all be going higher sooner rather than later.  And, don't forget ethanol!   Just what this sick economy needs.

Once, not that many years ago, people brought a book, magazine or newspaper to the plane place to help them kill time, but not anymore.  Now they reach for the omnipresent electronic slave bracelet that is the cell phone.  The worst of them merely push a button on one of those freaky cybor ear clips dubbed Bluetooth.  They look INSANE.

I hate it!  Of course I'm old.   A trip to the mens' room--(damn prostate!)--offers me proof in the mirror as I wash my hands.  My skin is beginning to sport that old guy translucent look.  I'm fading before my eyes.  What next??  That old guy funk?

That said, I'm still fairly certain that people are getting dumber by the minute.  I'm tempted to query a random sample of travelers at my gate regarding their favorite founding father.  Or, better yet, have them explain who Winston Churchill was and why he was the most important man of the twentieth century.  After ten seconds of consideration I scrap the idea as I am certain to be rendered clinically  depressed by my findings.  Whether it's bad schools or mind rot from the cancer that is reality television, most folks are dopes.

Do these clowns vote?  And, if so, for whom?
A family of hillbillies sits down across from me.  As I ponder their vacant stares and jumbo Mountain Dew clutching outstretched hands I think I know the answer.

I make a mental note to remind them to vote...on November 13th.