{"id":1532,"date":"2018-01-06T11:09:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T17:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2018-02-25T11:11:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T17:11:33","slug":"gene-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/gene-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1532-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/wp-contentuploads\/2018\/02\/Gene-Robinson-MIX-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/wp-contentuploads\/2018\/02\/Gene-Robinson-MIX-1.mp3\">http:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/wp-contentuploads\/2018\/02\/Gene-Robinson-MIX-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p class=\"font_8\">I met Gene Robinson a year ago and haven\u2019t seen him since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">He came at me the way a hummingbird zips up to a flower, flits around from blossom to blossom and then is gone before you can take its picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cMerci beaucoup,\u201d he said cheerfully as I left a box store and held the door open for him. I turned to him, smiled and said, \u201cYou\u2019re welcome!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cDo you speak French?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cNo, but I know what you said,\u201d I replied with my smile still in place, and that was all it took.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Before he told me his name Gene Robinson told me he\u2019s 73 years old. \u201cReally?\u201d It surprised me. \u201cI\u2019m 66 and I look like your grandpa.\u201d He grinned and acknowledged that he doesn\u2019t have much gray hair and that his face is portly enough to avoid creasing. Then he explained that his mother was white and his father was black. \u201cI got my dark complexion from my father,\u201d he said. This also surprised me because he was about as black as black skinned people get. I didn\u2019t say that, of course, but I couldn\u2019t have if I had wanted to because Gene kept talking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cMy mother\u2019s people were from France,\u201d Gene told me. \u201cThat\u2019s why I spoke to you in French.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Gene is the kind of person you meet throughout the South. He\u2019s a talker and he never met a stranger. I know you can find those people everywhere but there are many more of them here in Texas than anywhere else I\u2019ve ever lived. If you\u2019re in a line of three people at Kroger you\u2019ll be swapping recipes by the time you reach the checkstand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Gene told me he was born and raised in New York City and that he has lived all over the country, and he continued to flit from topic to topic for another three or four minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">There we were, two elderly men who had never met standing on a sidewalk smiling and looking each other in the eye.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">It was weird but oddly exhilarating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Then Gene seemed to be finished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cWell, I got other things I need to do,\u201d he said, \u201cso I guess I\u2019ll say goodbye to you. It was nice meeting you. My wife says I talk too much. She says, \u2018You\u2019re always talking to total strangers as if you were their best friend. Why do you do that?\u2019 I tell her I don\u2019t know. I just like people, I guess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Then Gene stuck out his hand and told me his name. I took it and told him mine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">\u201cMerci beaucoup, David,\u201d he laughed. Then he waved and walked away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font_8\">Five minutes a year ago. I still miss him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I met Gene Robinson a year ago and haven\u2019t seen him since. He came at me the way a hummingbird zips up to a flower, flits around from blossom to blossom and then is gone before you can take its picture. \u201cMerci beaucoup,\u201d he said cheerfully as I left a box store and held the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/gene-robinson\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Gene Robinson&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[349,348],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","hentry","category-aging","tag-new-friends","tag-strangers","post_format-post-format-audio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gene Robinson : The Aging of Aquarius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/gene-robinson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gene Robinson : The Aging of Aquarius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I met Gene Robinson a year ago and haven\u2019t seen him since. He came at me the way a hummingbird zips up to a flower, flits around from blossom to blossom and then is gone before you can take its picture. \u201cMerci beaucoup,\u201d he said cheerfully as I left a box store and held the &hellip; Continue reading &quot;Gene Robinson&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theagingofaquarius.com\/dw_blog\/gene-robinson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Aging of Aquarius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Theagingofaquariuscom-146601329349637\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DWRadio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-06T17:09:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-25T17:11:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theagingofaqua1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theagingofaqua1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dave Williams\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/11781c3944c84e2fdb841152c8e1d5e1\"},\"headline\":\"Gene Robinson\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-06T17:09:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-25T17:11:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":479,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"new friends\",\"strangers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"aging\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/\",\"name\":\"Gene Robinson : The Aging of Aquarius\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-06T17:09:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-25T17:11:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/11781c3944c84e2fdb841152c8e1d5e1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/gene-robinson\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gene Robinson\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Aging of Aquarius\",\"description\":\"&quot;What a long, strange trip it&#039;s been!&quot;\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theagingofaquarius.com\\\/dw_blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/11781c3944c84e2fdb841152c8e1d5e1\",\"name\":\"Dave Williams\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/54e0eb3531bd2d76fe8033472241adc21c6741b89c3f49b06ebe0ec004365691?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/54e0eb3531bd2d76fe8033472241adc21c6741b89c3f49b06ebe0ec004365691?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/54e0eb3531bd2d76fe8033472241adc21c6741b89c3f49b06ebe0ec004365691?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Williams\"},\"description\":\"Dave Williams is a radio news\\\/talk personality originally from Sacramento, now living in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, Carolann. 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