Poolside Chats.

   I'm too old now to search  out excitement when I go on  vacation.  Instead, I like to hang around the pool, kidding myself that I'm staying fit by doing lengths in the pool and chatting with folks from various parts of the USA and Canada.  We tend to generalize when we think of folks from different regions, as though they were all the same and similar in views and aspirations.  When talking to  individuals, one is reminded that everyone is different despite what the 'Elites' suggest and that under the gentle warmth of the Florida winter sun that people tend to cast aside their natural wariness of others and talk surprisingly frankly of how they feel about things.  I think that particularly applies to more mature (of course I  mean older) folks.
   Before the present scandal affecting the Ivy League Universities in the U.S.broke, I was sitting at the edge of  the  pool chatting with a guy from Boston named Jack.  He was a little younger than me and he was whining about the  miserable winter in Boston and I was 'one-upping' him about the frigid Canadian climate.  He asked me where I was from and I, as usual was starting to  explain I was from London, Ontario, near Toronto,don't you know.
   "Yes, I know where London, Ontario is, in fact I was there once!" He said, shocking me with his knowledge of Canada.  "I went to a hockey game to see the 'London Knights'! " he added.
   We chatted for a while.  He was a nice talkative guy, like me and after a little while I  felt comfortable with springing an naive question.
   "So, what do you think of the way the President is running the country?" I asked innocently..
   He leaned over to me and dropped his voice several decibels.
   "I come from a long line of Boston Democrats," he said.  "My parents were democrats, my grand-parents were democrats and all my siblings except one brother were Democrats, he was Republican and was a bit of an outcast on that account.  Other than him, I don't think any member of this family wasn't a Democrat."
   He smiled sadly, leaned in a little closer and dropped his voice another couple of decibels.  "Stan, I probably wouldn't tell you this if you were an American, but in the last election I voted for Donald Trump!"
   I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I said "Wow!".
   I slipped back into the water and swam a couple of laps.  I put on my sunglasses and hat and lay back  on the lawn chair, next to Jack and picked up my novel.
   "By the way," said Jack, "You've got quite a clown leading  your country too!
   
   We ran into each other by the pool on several  more occasions.   In the course of our conversation it became apparent that Jack knew more about Canada than  I would  have expected.  I asked him how he came to be so much  more knowledgeable than most of his fellow Americans.  (I framed the question carefully of course).
   "My great grandmother emigrated from Ireland to escape the famine in  1848 and lived in Nova Scotia for a few years before coming to America, so  I've always been sort of interested in  Canada and have visited various parts of the country over the years."

   My last note on Jack relates to the recent University scandal.   While chatting about our respective families, Jack  mentioned he had a son who went to Harvard.  He was not bragging.
   "We were going through some difficulties at home and he wanted desperately to go to University away from home.  He applied to seventeen Universities, of which Harvard was the one he least wanted to go to .
He was rejected by all of them EXCEPT Harvard."
   Go figger!  But I did wonder how that might fit into the context of the 'Great Universities Scandal' ?