How quickly things can change

Sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle. You remember him. He fell asleep and when he finally woke up 20 years later, everything had changed.

Monday, when I was waiting for the yoga class to begin, I noticed a group of young boys gathered in the hallway. They were about 11 or 12 years old and they were all taller than me! How could this happen? More importantly, when did this happen? It was only yesterday that anyone under the age of 13 was shorter than I am, maybe not by much, but I didn’t have to look up to see their faces. I am used to adults towering over me but kids?! This can’t be right.

The traffic rules are also different. It used to be that pedestrians always had the right of way. Now it seems that anyone who dares cross an intersection on foot is fair game. I was always taught that those big, red, octagonal signs on the corners meant that vehicles were to come to a complete stop before proceeding. Now they are purely decorative. It seems to be common practice to slow down to the posted speed limit before barreling across the road. Not even the police cars stop with regularity.

This is not a phenomenon peculiar to the town where I live. In Ft. Worth, Texas there was an intersection with huge signs informing people that it was a good idea to actually stop for a red light. The sign was in both English and Spanish and was very explicit as to what could happen if one chose not to stop. I don’t know if the posted information is still there or not as we haven’t been to Ft. Worth in several years. It just amazes me that people need to be told not to run a red light. However, we noticed that at least three cars always went through that particular intersection after the signal turned red so I’m not sure the signs did any good.

Speaking of red, I’d like to thank the lady in the big red SUV for trying to run over me at lunch. Thank goodness I stop at intersections when I’m walking because she certainly didn’t come to anything remotely resembling a stop. She also didn’t look to see if there was some outdated soul trying to cross the street.

If I truly have been asleep for the past 20 years that would explain quite a bit. Somehow the children gotten taller and the traffic rules have changed but the worst surprise is that my body has aged. I used to be relatively thin and energetic. Now I am well-padded and feel as if every last bit of my energy has been drained. I used to have great legs. Not only did they look good but they never, ever hurt even after traipsing around an amusement park all day carrying one or more toddlers. Now they ache with every change in the weather. We won’t even discuss how they look.

Shoes have also changed while I wasn’t looking. I used to be able to go into any shoe shop and pick up a pair of shoes with ease. I think elves have secretly redesigned all the shoes so that nothing fits. They also reassigned the sizes so that if I do find something that doesn’t squash my toes or fall off my heels it is in a much bigger size than I used to wear. One thing I am thankful for is that I am old enough not to worry about stylish shoes. The footwear that teen girls wear these days looks positively hazardous … fashionable, but hazardous.

I don’t know if I don’t pay attention to what is going on around me or if things change so gradually that I don’t notice. It is when I come face to face with the unexpected that I wonder where I’ve been. Maybe Rip Van Winkle isn’t a fictional character after all. Perhaps he is a part of all of us who remember the way things used to be and are surprised by the way things are.

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