How Old Are You
McDonald's Restaurant
Havre d'Grace, MD
September 2016
A man and a woman are sitting at the table in front of me. They are loud so I hear all of their conversation. They look older than me. They seem to have had a few more challenges in life than me. As they talk about the presidential election, the man asks the woman if she votes.
"No, I can't.'" she responds. I assume she has committed a felony. sometime in her lifetime.
"How old are you?", the man asks the woman. "You going to be 52 on your birthday?"
"No", the woman responds, "I think I am going to be 58. I'm not sure".
"Well what year was you born"?
"Um, 1963". She starts to count with her fingers and comes up with 57.
"No, that aint right," the man offers and he then starts to count on his hands. "55, is that right? No, that aint right either."
It took them several minutes and several attempts to do this math. Their process was so confuted that I found myself befuddled on how to do the math as well. I reach for my phone to use the calculator.
"53. You going to be 53 at your next birthday," he finally announced.
"yea, that sounds right." And the discussion is over.
