COREYSAYS'S

So I hired a guy named Max to do some work around my house, install a ceiling fan, do some light electrical, that sort of thing.  Turns out…Max is a flaming hippy!  I don’t have much experience with hippies other than knowing Cartman from South Park does not like them because they hug trees.  But Max here seems pretty cool…he has lots of stories to tell about concerts he has seen, women his has been with, and drugs he has tried.  He even drives a cool van with curtains in the windows…how awesome is that?  He is old…probably around mid 50’s, says “man” and “dude” a lot…and likes to work with his shirt off…which was awkward at first but I have adjusted and learned to keep my distance.

I was just outside watering my lawn when he stepped outside to “take a quick break” and headed to the back of his van…at which point he promptly closed the windows and doors only to pop out about 10 minutes later smelling a little funny and seeming much more chipper and friendly.  I feel I have a lot to learn from this relic of the past.  There is something to be admired about a man who knows what he likes and the time frame he likes to live…even if that time frame was 40 years ago (yes…that is right…1971 was 40 years ago).  I was born in 1974….so I pretty much spent the 70’s burping up on myself and dropping dukies in my disposable diapers.  But, after some reflection, I’m thinking me effectively missing the 70’s  was a good thing.  I mean, if I was a teen in, or even in my twenty’s  in the 70’s…I just don’t think I would have made it.  To many drugs, to many political fights to fight…to many girls to fall in love with…and then lose as they move on to the next guy…which from my understanding and what Max is telling me, happened a lot.  As Max is installing a ceiling fan in my bedroom…he is reminiscing about how the 70’s were a simpler time..no one worried about getting an STD that killed you, everyone he knew was always willing to share weed, and he had no trouble finding a place to sleep when he needed one.  He said he still tries to live that way of life as much as posible…but everyone today is so focused on money and their jobs that more and more he is feeling isolated and alone.  I have nothing to offer him except money for working on my house…and an ear to listen to the stories that he tells. 

This is the first of many days to come where Max will be doing work for me…and I sense that I’m going to get an education in a lifestyle that I know very little about and a time that I can only reference through movies and Hunter S Thompson books.     After all, I’m a 90’s child…a generation Xer.  Give me a micro brew (which I don’t really like), a rerun of saved by the bell, and music that makes me want to kill myself and I’m a happy boy.  I’m off to inspect Max’s work (from a distance) and see if I can glean anymore insight to the life and times of a hippy who misses the 70’s.  At $20 an hour…this is a lot cheaper…and truly educational…then most of what I learned in college!

“If it feels good…do it!”

Unknown  

~ by coreysays on July 24, 2010.

Posted in Personal