Are We Tootling Our Horns?

Hilda, a woman who had lived all of her life in the hill country, made her first trip to a big city at age seventy. When she arrived and got her first look at the skyscrapers, she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was like a dream — a wondrous, magical fairyland. Her friend Anna met her in the lobby of a big hotel and, after Hilda had been registered, the two women stood in front of an elevator with shiny, brass sliding doors. Hilda watched in amazement as the magic doors parted, revealing a compartment lined with mirrors. She trembled as she watched a tired old man who must have been in his eighties slowly shuffle into the compartment. She wondered what was happening to him as she watched the lights over the door blinking on and off: one … two… three … four … five. Then the blinking stopped. But soon it began again: five … four … three … two … one. And…