Conversations

When I think about it, I should be able to make friends with older people very well. Shared interest, is the general idea. I can talk with them about old comics, movies, TV, music and radio shows. We should have stuff! Stuff in common!

But we don't.

See older people, people in general, choose to live in the present. They're interested in what captures their interest now... not what they may have read or seen or heard fifty years ago. People that like to live their entertainment in the past, like me, aren't exactly rare but they're not overly common either.

So I don't really like to pester people with my interests. Unless they bring it up first, and then all bets are off.

The facility I work in has security guards that tour the premises. They know my picture from a gallery of employees that they study, so I'm "Mr. Dill" or worse yet... "David". We exchange pleasantries but other than that we don't really get to know each other. More than one of them have mentioned my life-size cardboard cutout of Captain Kirk. Apparently, 'hazing' a new security guard at my work place is done by waiting until the dead of night, sending the new guy on his rounds alone, and not telling them that they might come face-to-face with an unexpected visitor from the Starship Enterprise. They wanna know if the new guy pulls his gun on Captain Kirk or not.

They really hate me during Halloween when the Universal Monsters come out.

I like to get in early. And one morning at 5:30, I had rolled into my cube and was doing my morning ritual of unpacking my bag and getting some breakfast together when an unexpected voice from behind startled me.

"So... I guess you like Captain Marvel." It wasn't actually Captain Kirk that was talking to me. I turned around and found one of the older security guards smiling at me. He had white hair and a warm face, and was motioning to one of my cube displays where I had several versions of Captain Marvel action figures lined up together.

"Sure do." I grinned dismissively. Assuming that he was just making friendly conversation and not wanting to bog him down into unasked-for geekiness. "Ever since I was a little boy, I've loved that guy."

"Yeah." The security guard nodded at me. "Me too. Ever since I was a little boy."

I looked up from what I was doing, startled. I should've known. Most everyone on the planet refers to Captain Marvel as "Shazam" because of a legal dispute preventing DC from using the name "Captain Marvel", so the character gets marketed as Shazam. But this dude... this dude had said "Captain Marvel". He might actually know the character. He might actually know the character from his childhood!


He launched into a story. Telling me how he had grown up in New York. Telling me about the little corner store he used to buy comics at and who his favorite characters were. I slowly sunk into my seat in shock and surprise as he continued on. Movies, TV shows, memories, nostalgia, comics, radio shows... this guy knew everything. He was that rare mix of an older person who liked to live the entertainment of his past. A genuine golden age geek, here right in front of me.

We had many many early morning conversations after that. And as it turns out, I wasn't the only one. He was known far and wide through the OSC as being the hands-down friendliest security guard. He was the type of guy that would find out what interested you, and then be able to converse with you on the topic. It's just that the niche he and I shared was a little more specialized than most.

I came in at 5:45 one morning and he met me at the door. "I thought you were going to be late today." He said. "I'm glad I caught you. I've got something to share."

He walked me out to his car and brought a huge shadow box out of his trunk. We walked over to my car and he loaded it into my trunk. It was his collection of what he called 'pinbacks'. And he was lending it to me for a couple of days so I could check it out.


Pinbacks, as he called them, are pins. Just little, metal circles with a pin on the back to hold the thing to your jacket. Today they're a dime a dozen, and I have a tupperware container of many many pinbacks from the last twenty years. But see... his were from the 1940's. True, vintage antiques sporting characters most people have long forgotten and offered as cereal premiums and in-store giveaways. The difference here is the eras involved, as this security guard had picked them up when he was a kid. What I was seeing was his own, personal, childhood collection. Something that he was immensely proud of and had obviously shared with many people. I wasn't observing the history of something I saw online or in an antique shop. I was touching the personal history of someone who shared my interests but was born thirty years earlier.


And there, in his collection, was an original Captain Marvel Club pinback from the 1940's.


Back when this happened, I didn't have the comfort of a camera/iPhone in my pocket and I hadn't started writing again. So the experience went unrecorded. It is something I keep having to remind myself that it actually happened.

One day, this particular security guard dropped out of guard rotation and never came back. I asked another security guard about him and was told that his hip was hurting too bad, so he had been forced to quit and move back to New York to live with his daughter. I never saw him again.

We only ever knew each other for a few minutes on the quiet mornings when his rotation had him at my building. And I wish I could have conquered my social anxieties and weirdness enough to get to know him better. He was a real treat and I miss talking about Captain Marvel with him.

Thanks,
DCD