Saturday, March 31, 2007

A child's view of retirement in a mobile home park

What follows is humourous piece from a publication called Senior Life, dated April, 1988. It was recently passed on to me and I thought it deserved to be preserved on the Internet.

After a holiday break, the teacher asked her small pupils how they spent their holidays. One little boy's reply went like this:

"We always spend our holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida. Now they live in tin huts. They ride big three-wheeled tricycles. They go to a big building they call a wrecked hall, but if it was wrecked, it's fixed now.

They play games there and do exercises, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool and if they go into it, they just stand there in the water with their hats on. I guess they don't remember how to swim.

My Grandma used to bake cookies and stuff, but I guess she forgot how. Nobody cooks there. They all go somewhere to eat something they call an 'early bird.'

When you come into their park, there is a doll-house with a man sitting in it. He watches all day so they can't get out without him seeing them. They wear badges with their names on them. I guess they don't know who they are.

My Grandma said that Grandpa worked all his life and earned his retardment. I wish they would move back home, but I guess the man in the doll-house won't let them out."

1 comment:

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

A very funny story for those of us who consider ourselves, "retarded"