One of the great things about being this age is that you can take your time.

It was a perfect Bay Area upper 70’s early summer day and I was at Andy’s Orchard buying the week’s fruit and there in the store was Andy himself and two men who were clearly old friends of his. One of them disappeared in the back and came out with a three-pound box of dried apricot slabs, saying something along the lines of these are the finest food you can eat.

He’s right on that.

They gradually shifted towards the door and outside as I was being rung up.

I came out to my car to find them continuing the conversation, reluctant to let it end, as old friends with a lot of shared memories do.

And they were standing behind my car. Not super close but I definitely wasn’t going anywhere.

There was a young man and a young woman sitting on a bench right there next to me watching this and waiting to see what I would do.

I didn’t pull out my knitting but I probably should have, just for the laughs. I didn’t turn the car on. I just watched them through my side mirror, enjoying that they were getting to see each other.

Finally, the young man waved one small wave to try to get their attention and I rolled down my window and laughed, They’re having a good old time.

Making it clear that I was fine, no worries, and now those two were, too. They laughed because I did and looked a lot more relaxed after that.

Finally the one guy got in his car, I didn’t see whether the second one got in the same car or not but he was out of there, and Andy headed over to the kids and reached out to shake their hands, greeting them with all the warmth that is right there for every person he meets. The man is love personified.

And it dawned on me: I could be wrong, but it sure looked to me like they were there to interview to work in his store for the summer. Which means I’ll get to see more of them. Cool!