Curious George

Curious George

Got this new neighbor across the street.  He's meandered over a couple of times and seems to be a kind elderly fellow.  There's one little problem though.  He seems to be fixated on my son.  For real!  Now when he routinely comes over his efforts are singularly focused on what my son is doing.  He's never asked any questions as to the happenings going on with me.  Do I feel slighted?  Of course not but the secret about this Curious George[1] needs to be uncovered.

I guess what sticks out is the fact that Curious George seems to want to know all about my son's college interests.  Most folks in this trailer court don't really care to talk about college, particularly when it's something they chose to outright ignore if not bypass.  As a matter of fact Curious George has mentioned that he has some 5 adult kids.  There's not been a single mention of any of them  pursuing higher education.

Curious George and his wife, who's a nurse, can often be seen doing lawn work, putting in new plants and working on windows.  It's obvious that they are bored and it's also obvious that Curious George has little to do with computers.  So how is it that he always seems to have a thousand questions for my son about computers?  When my son went to tell him the fall courses he had enrolled in you could see Curious George's eyes glaze over from a lack of understanding yet there he was acting as if he were about to start another renaissance!

Though friendly I get the sense that Curious George has very little dealings with black people.  It's also rather obvious that his stereotype of me is that I don't have any college degrees, hence he never queries about my academic pursuits.  He definitely hasn't asked about my writing or music and it is definitely obvious that he will not ever ask me about such pursuits, not when Curious George has to be fixated on what my son is doing.  I can only assume that Curious George might have a laptop around his house because his wife is perhaps a nurse.

Protocol dictates to remain respectful to our elders and so I will remain respectful to good old Curious George.  However, next time he goes to make all of these academic inquiries about my son, I'm going to politely bust him out.  I'm going to ask him why his focus is on my son.  I'm also going to ask him why the interest in such a younger person when it would be more appropriate for him to deal with someone closer to his age group like me.  In all honesty he's never asked anything about me and that includes asking what my name is.  If I were to ask Curious George if he were Cylon and if he were really alive he'd probably grab his chest and faint.  Good.  His nonspeaking wife's a nurse.

Orrin K. Loftin, Explorer

Copyright?  When some neighbors should remain strangers.

September 2^nd, 2017

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[1] Eons ago when my son was but I likeI called him "Curious George" so as to pick on him to see what he would do.  He let it be known that he was not "Curious George" and that he was not to be messed with this way and I respectfully never did it again!  Neither of us imagined that eons later we would meet "Curious George".  He's for real.