Upload me the radio…
Is it the crush the 3 year old me had on that 4 year old “Older Woman” who was ebony black and running like the wind in her back yard? The 8 year old me with Miguel and his clan going to the Bailando in the park? The “20 something” me reluctantly telling myself to bury Spanish so I could speak French right in class, and wanting something more? Or the 60 something me wondering about what “could have been”? Or does it just not matter…
Or maybe you can take the Geek out of the Poor Farm Town and send him off to college and get him all involved in the Silicon Valley Culture and still “These are his peeps”… even in another language (or the same language of his youth, some times…) even in another country, as we’re all from “another country”… if you go back far enough.
But I want to dance with these folks in the park, again. Uno mas, por favor… Bailando…
Then Puerto Rico is in my soul. It was before my son married a 1/2 Puerto Rican girl. It was before I lived in Florida a few years and hung out at the Puerto Rican restaurants. Even now I think about buying a place there instead of Florida… A Caribbean Island full of more history than the mainland, and with food that’s a wonder. (I’ve asked the Daughter-in-law to please please please give me lessons in how she spices things…. She thinks I’m just being polite as it is ‘just food’… Oh God, the hill to climb…)
How in heck does an “old white guy” make it clear “These are my people”? I strongly resent the modern Left just for the way they put a barrier between me and “my people” I grew up with …
Musings from the Chiefio 
Just OMG there’s hope for old guys when the new kids find out they did something cool:
Ready to start your second childhood? ;-) …pg
I never finished up my first!
Heck, I had pimples into my 40s and one of the longest puberties on the planet… Near as I can tell, I’ve been an adolescent my whole “adult” life…
OTOH, I’ve been a “responsible adult” personality since about age 6. Started working for wages in the family restaurant at 7 and never stopped working until retirement age. That’s about 55 years of working. Even now I can’t stop “cranking” on something, so do Climate Work every day.
So somehow I’ve been an “adult child” since about 7 and never stopped…
FWIW, I’m presently learning 2 computer languages so “language plasticity” is still present. Something that’s supposed to leave in adults. So there’s that…
E.M.: “Even now I think about buying a place there instead of Florida… A Caribbean Island full of more history than the mainland, and with food that’s a wonder”
I vote for Puerto Rico … and I will be jealous. I haven’t been to all the Caribbean Islands; from what I’ve seen and heard most of them have issues. Maybe nice places to visit, but …
PR looks and feels a lot like Cuba — is that just coincidence? Relative to Hawaii anyway.