Post from the air

Now on my way back to Seattle. On the plane. Assuming all goes safely, I am always so so pleased to land at Sea Tac that I feel like getting out of the plane, falling to the ground and kissing the tarmac. So so glad to be out of the Midwest and home.

My brother took me all the way to OHare a distance of quite a bit. I think it’s really on his way. We chatted about business thing and the question that’s always in the air the last ten years or so. Should mom and/or dad really move from their home into a more suitable environment? My mom (along earlier with my father) live in a duplex in a development associated with a large (at least for Rockford) senior living center. Skilled nursing, apartment with meals and other domestic services provided, more complete apartments and these duplexes (‘cottages’ they’re called). The whole institution is affiliated with the Methodist Church. In the main facility (I stayed there this time) known as the ‘big house’ or now more properly “the Arbor” or to us ‘Across the Street’ you encounter a population of scrubbed white haired (and always coiffed), pink complected, well dressed senior citizens. Not a hair out of place, pastels preferred. In the whole place, my mother (a Jewish lady!) and Helen down the street (a Negro according to my mom but light skinned, you know) constitute the ethnic diverse population of the institution.. Pretty sad state. Of course, more mixed faces in the staff.

But, when I’m there, I’m part of the institution myself so I go along. Big improvement with the addition of wireless in the Big House. My brother and sister are willing to sleep on the floor. I am not. So, somehow, often I usually get to stay in the guest rooms across the street. Pretty nice actually, gives you a refuge when the family dynamics get to you.

Many many retired clergy there as it is reasonably priced. No problem if you want to find a Methodist minister. At one social occasion, I realized that the widow ladies were passing around pictures of their husband’s former churches along with their grandchildren.

However I leave the Midwest behind, I hope until July when we will be going to Indiana for my niece’s bat mitzvah. The whole scene was getting to me more this time. Farewell to the frame houses with the porches, the nasal twang, that feeling that things were all decided way before you got here and so shall they be.

Guess I belong on the west coast where things can be a little edgier.

PS In the Midwest, the concept of particular colors for specific seasons is still followed. In Seattle that idea belongs to the quaint past. My sister thought that maybe I should consider not wearing a black top because it was April. I went shopping with her and she tried on a brown skirt. She thought that generally she wouldn’t wear something that color now. What? In Seattle, people just wear lighter weight Gore-Tex. I’ve always thought that people in Seattle do dress differently. Look around Costco, or back to school night, look at the group waiting to board the Seattle bound planes. All muted somber colors. Blue, gray, brown, black. Suits me.