As I've grown older, and sunk deeper into the throngs of my responsibilities as a small business owner, I've erroneously strayed away from that part once so core to my former self.
Today, however, a glimpse of the old "young" me returned at the counter of the Burien post office branch no less. The nicest woman helped me. I remembered her from a previous time around the holidays, when the office was jam-packed with people shipping and mailing all there holiday who knows whats. She wasn't very nice to me then. If I had to handle all those pensive people, one after another, for hours on end, I wouldn't be very nice to me either, even if I was Pope Benedict.
So our conversation starts in the usual way. She asks me how I'm doing. I said well, thank you, how's your day going? She told me it was going well, she was just about done for the day, and it's her Monday. I smiled. She smiled.
Madonna's 'Everybody' was playing on the overhead speakers as background music. Out of nowhere she exclaims, "I LOVE MADONNA! This song, oh it takes me back. I think this was on her very first album, which I had on vinyl - I think I also had it on eight track. This was back when music was good, really good. Those were some good times ..." she ended a bit wistfully.
Believe me, I know great artists bring people together. Am I a racist for being a little bit surprised a middle aged black woman was into Madonna?
"Ah yes," I said. "The 1980s. What a great time to be alive. That was a time when optimism flowed freely through pop culture. We did have some incredible music back then, didn't we."
Sidebar. I recently read an article about older music outselling new music for the first time in history. True story.
We continued bantering back and forth while she weighed and stamped each of my large letters. I remarked about being just a kid when this album debuted, a simpler time before having a real job. She let out a laugh and told me she was working her first job out of high school for the government. I asked what area. She proudly revealed for the department of defense. I asked her what she did for them. She was a paper shredder, working for minimum wage at $1.60 per hour at the base in Sand Point. I smiled, and she laughed a bit more considering what a measly sum that is by today's standards.
She asked if I grew up around here. I told her I did out in Issaquah. She asked if I graduated Issaquah High, to which I confirmed I had. She asked what year. I told her 92. She laughed again and told me I'm just a baby, she was 18 by then and she graduated in 1974 from Roosevelt. I asked if she lived in the Burien area. No, Skyway. She grew up in the Central District.
For a time she was in law school at Seattle College before it became Seattle University. She said thought she should have started at a two year school first, and she rushed to get out into the real world. I acknowledged when we were younger we were always in a hurry to grow up. And now that we're older, how we wish things could be how they were before we were tied down by our adult responsibilities.
She said she's now been with the post office for 30 years. I said it must be treating her fairly well for her to stay that long. She agreed it has been good. I asked what area of law she was studying to practice. She said corporate law. Her uncle was a corporate lawyer. She then said with a big smile by now she would be retired from her corporate practice on her own private island. That was her dream. I told her it's great to dream and it's never too late until it's too late.
I really felt a sense of connection today with this near perfect stranger. Near perfect because I recall having seen her at least once before. While we were bantering back and forth, someone came in to drop off a large basket of letters. I said hi to Lynn, and she greeted him back and asked how he was doing. So as we were saying our goodbyes I called her by name and told her to have a great rest of her day. She sure made mine!
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