Columbus Day
So I’m in a parking garage near my office early Friday morning, 5:45 or so, deep down in the bowels well below sea level, uncomfortably deep for such close proximity to the river. I normally take the bus in but on this particular day I was skedaddling out of town in the early afternoon so I decided to suspend my Man of The People Public Transportation persona and drive in. So I parked and as I get on the elevator to come up another young fellow gets on (well let’s say a young fellow, as the phrase “another young fellow” does rather imply that I am also a young fellow which is sadly not the case any more) who seems to be in his mid-20s, dressed in that construction worker grunge look that one sees in Ford commercials. We sort of pleasantly acknowledge each other’s existence as one is somewhat required to do in an elevator the size of a phone booth and as the platform lurches higher he remarks “do you have to work on Monday?”
When I reply that indeed I do he says “aw, too bad” and then somewhat thoughtfully (or perhaps wistfully) adds “but I don’t know why it’s a holiday; the guy killed millions of people.”
I’m sorry to say that at that hour my brain was not quite as fully engaged as it of right ought to be, as the best I could manage was to chuckle and say “well, small pox ain’t all it’s cracked to be.”
He smiled and went on his way.
Fun, Life | Mr. Bingley | 
October 8, 2012 6:47 am
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The infection, it runs deep.
I’ll say this for San Francisco: they still have Columbus Day parades in the Italian Quarter. And I believe they always will.
Actually, I should note that I had a phone chat with one of my nieces, and this topic came up. I could hear her eyes roll when she spoke of how Columbus Day was no longer a school day off.
Although it remains a Federal holiday, and Federal workers have the day off.
In honor of such, I am going to the range, and blast a huge amount of cold, hard lead back into the embrace of Mother Earth.