Ranga and I work together. I’m an engineer on the project. He’s a product manager. We had just ordered our lunch and were standing there looking at all the soups on the menu. We spoke about our plans for a week-long company event in the summer.
He is going up the weekend before. I am staying the weekend after, meeting the fair and industrious Trudy afterwards for a trip to Assateague Island to see the ponies.
“I went up there with a friend once in the summer,” I said. “I was a summer intern. It was 1981.”
His eyes widened. “Wow!” He emphasized the w’s when he said it.
I looked over at him. “What, wow?” I asked.
“That was a long time ago.”
I looked down for a moment, lost maybe in a reverie. Then I looked up. “Yes, it was a long time ago,” I conceded.
“I wasn’t born yet,” he said.
It doesn’t seem that long ago. But I guess it was.