Better Than Reading
I was at the library. On a whim I pulled a book about Duke Ellington off the shelf and everything disappeared. I thought, “Oh, no, I’ve gone back in time!”
Suddenly it was July 7th, 1956 and I was at the Newport Jazz Festival. Mr. Ellington just got off stage from playing his set. He was sweaty and exhausted.
He looked at me and said, “Who are you?”
I said, “Brooks Palmer. I was at the library and I traveled through time to right now.”
He said, “What time did you come from?”
I said, “April 8th, 2010.”
He said, “Oh my God! What’s it like?”
I looked around, then I said, “Well, the clothes are different. Umm, the haircuts are more varied.”
He said, “Do people fly through the air in electric cars?”
I said, “Nope. Oh, we carry our phones in our pockets.”
He said, “What? That’s amazing. Is there world peace?”
I said, “No. Science proved that it’s not possible. So people still fight, but at least they don’t feel guilty about it anymore.”
Someone from the press took our picture.
The flash brought me back to today. I was still holding the book about Duke Ellington. I flipped through it and found a photo of me standing next to Mr. Ellington backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival. I xeroxed the picture on the library’s copy machine. When I got home I taped the xerox to my fridge.
2 Responses to “Better Than Reading”
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Hi Brooks!
Monday night I attended a cocktail party at the home of George Wein—the man who founded The Newport Jazz Festival. I gave him a copy of this wonderful post. I thought he'd get a real kick out of it. Maybe he's even somewhere in the background of that photo?!!!!?
All the best,
Phil
This post reminded me of my high school English teacher. She used "xerox" as a verb, too. 🙂