{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Tell Them Both I Said Hello","description":"There's a grocery store Cam goes to when he's in a hurry. It's NOT the one closest to his house. That one is full of memories. Full of roots. ----- I saw him see me. He turned and headed my way. \u201cCam,\u201d he said. \u201cHow\u2019s you mother?\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d I said. \u201cShe passed away two years ago.\u201d I saw you at her funeral, I wanted to say. I remember talking to you. \u201cOh. Yes. That\u2019s right. I\u2019m sorry. Well then, how\u2019s your father?\u201d \u201cDad\u2019s wonderful. He plays pickleball five, sometimes six days a week. Sometimes twice a day. He\u2019s eighty-seven but I don\u2019t think he knows it. He\u2019s great.\u201d \u201cWell, that\u2019s wonderful. Please tell them both I said hello.\u201d \u201cI, I sure will. Thanks.\u201d The grocery store closest to my house is the one I got to least often. The trip takes too long. At any moment of the day there is someone in there that wants to chat. Wants a short visit. In the middle of the day, when I go in to buy something quick for lunch, someone like this is likely there. Usually friends of my parents. They\u2019re in no hurry. The grocery store I go to when I\u2019m in a hurry is actually a bit further away. It\u2019s quicker. Conversations like this, with this older gentleman, while a bit comical and maybe a bit sad, mean something. \u201cI know you,\u201d he was saying. \u201cI know your people. You and me, we\u2019re connected. We fished when you were a young boy. Your dad and I hunted turkeys together.\u201d As a young man, I wanted no part of this. I didn\u2019t want to be reminded of myself as a boy. I wanted anonymity. I wanted a blank slate and to make my own way as a man. So, I left my hometown for two decades. Today, the opposite is now true. It\u2019s become important to me. It\u2019s a 180 degree about face. I like it, though a bit comical and a bit sad at times, I like it. It\u2019s roots. There\u2019s something about old connections, about roots. About generations of pasts that intertwine. I once dismissed this as unimportant. I felt that these were silly things cherished by simple, small-minded people. I was a young man then. I was bullet proof and I knew it all. I\u2019ve had a 180 degree about face. They\u2019re important now more than ever as I look around at who I\u2019ll grow old with, how we\u2019re connected, and how my connections may show up in my kid\u2019s worlds in some unknowable way in the future. And I see one of my friend\u2019s adult children in the grocery story. I knew him when he was a boy. I tossed him balls, maybe, or cooked him pancakes in his pajamas at my house on a Saturday morning. And I go to him and I say, \u201cHey. Tell me. How\u2019s your father. I miss him. Please tell him I said Hello.\u201d I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"