The lake waits placidly for the bright morning sun to finish rising over the surrounding hills covered in trees colored jungle green.
An inn sits on the shore, observing the light blue sparkle of the water. It is about five minutes to 8 in the morning and the restaurant of the inn is preparing breakfast items for consumers.
A family makes itself comfortable on the porch of the inn's green and white couches. Certain members are waiting to meet a group of four here. The mother, Abby, has made a date for her recently divorced father, Bob, with a woman named Pat, who is from England. Pat has come with three other friends, consisting of Linda, Betty and Betty's husband Dick -- all from New Jersey. There is an air of desperate attempts of making good first impressions as Abby introduces the four to Bob, her husband Chuck, and her two daughters, Lauren and Hannah. The daughters are the only two in their teens; Lauren is 17, three years older than Hannah. They are only here to eat, as socializing with older people at 8 in the morning is just not their thing.
In the lake, two older women in colorful one-piece swimsuits decorated with flowers wade in the shallows of the water's edge. Hannah turns and makes a comment to Lauren about how she would never go swimming this early in the morning, and that those women's swimsuits must have been on sale, because she would never buy one of those for full-price. A woman in a crisp, white-collared uniform comes out to the porch to tell everyone that they are now serving breakfast, and they may come in and sit if they would like to now.
The group follows the woman to a table in between the front door and the kitchen. Dick, Chuck, Bob and Pat all sit on one side of the rectangular table, Linda sits on the end, and Abby, Hannah, Lauren and Betty sit on the other side. The table has a pink tablecloth and two green vases with freshly picked flowers in them. They order drinks and everyone except Hannah and Lauren start talking to each other. It may be too early for them to do anything but think about sleeping.
The conversations that take place are quite literally separate, almost as if there is a line drawn down the center of the table. On one side, Dick, Betty and Chuck talk about home furnishings and construction. On the other side, Linda and Abby have a conversation with Pat and Bob about travel, and their own personal travel anecdotes. This side seems to laugh a lot more than the other side.
Hannah and Lauren remain quiet. Lauren seems interested in the subjects talked about, but her sister is bored out of her mind. She begs Lauren for a pen and paper to doodle with, and Lauren ignores her ennui, as she is busy writing with the only pen and paper she possesses. Hannah notices a couple sitting at a table a few yards away. She tells Lauren about the cute guy conversing with what looks to be his girlfriend. They both watch as the waitress comes to take the couple's order. Both Hannah and Lauren give each other looks of secrecy, as they are the only two in the restaurant who notice that the man in the couple flirts with the waitress, as the woman with him shows a look like she has a slight pang of jealousy.
The older people at the table are still conversing, and changing subjects from construction to politics, and from travel to old foods that are not available on the market anymore. The only time the two "sides" of the table interact with each other is when there is a joke made, or a problem to be solved. When Pat does not receive the toast she has ordered, the table works together to point out to the waitress that she has forgotten it. Another time the two react together is when one person overhears someone on the other side say something funny, and they all start to laugh and comment. It expands the conversation, and opens up the table, but only for a short time.
This could possibly be because Hannah and Lauren, who are seated in the middle of the table, are not conversing with anyone and therefore blocking part of the table from connecting. At one point Betty jokingly makes a comment to Lauren on how "they don't want to associate with our side of the table." She resumes talking about politics with Dick and Chuck, and Lauren goes back to not talking with Hannah.
After another hour or so, Hannah's boredom finally gets the best of her. She makes attention-grabbing movements, like stretching out her arms while letting out an extravagantly loud sigh. Her father notices and asks if she's bored. She nods her head, with a smile, as she thinks she is going to get out of having to sit for another half hour of monotony. He responds by telling her she can jump into any of the conversations at any time. Hannah returns to her boredom by taking the pepper and grinding it onto a plate. She leans over to Lauren and says that she doesn't care about anything they are talking about, she doesn't watch the news, so she wouldn't be able to add anything even if she wanted to. Lauren tells her she finds their conversations interesting, but can't add anything because she doesn't have a story of her own to add, or the experience. She just likes to listen.
Hannah's boredom finally becomes unbearable and she starts to hit Lauren with a spoon in the arm. About 15 minutes later, the conversations stop as everyone gets up to leave.
The women from the water are now gone and the sun is exposing a beautiful shine on the lake with its rays. Hannah has just wasted an hour of her life on this Labor Day morning. Where she is normally the most popular person in social situations, the generation gap has her as an outcast in this one. It frustrates her, but she is happy the morning's turmoil is over.
The society in which she was placed in this morning was a whole other world compared to her everyday modern. She was put into a world where women wading in the water at 8 a.m., wearing brightly colored swimsuits decorated with flower designs, was not funny or weird. At her age, she did not see the past generation as another culture, unlike Lauren who wanted to gain knowledge by listening to their conversation, but rather, something that was boring and made her feel uncomfortable.
As the family parts with the group they met, Abby asks her father what he thought about Pat. He responds with a comment about how she should just stick to letting him do his own findings in his love life. Hannah and Lauren join in by saying that the dating world nowadays is online anyway, and he should make himself a profile on match.com. He agrees with this statement, and it is clear that although the new generation is a lot different than the past, the past has the ability to make adjustments to the new.
It is sad to add that the same thing could not be said for the new generation adjusting to the old.
Lauren Beale, 17, is a senior at Frankfort High School.
Print this story
E-mail this story
