Where is Everybody?
Yoo-hoo? Anybody Home…?
Where is Everybody?
Here’s some trivia: The first episode of the classic TV series The Twilight Zone debuted October 2, 1959. Entitled Where is Everybody? it tells the story of a man who appears in a small town that contains activity (music playing on a jukebox, a movie theater showing a film, etc.), except for one very odd thing: there’s not one person around.
Sometimes when I’m working my day job, I travel around to many communities during the day, whether on paved suburban streets or dirt roads out in the country and I often think about that episode.
Why? Because wherever I travel, I rarely ever see people outside.
I tell myself that they could, of course, be at work, or maybe if they’re employed somewhere on third shift, they’re sleeping. Yet with the demographics of our area I think most people are retirees, which is why I usually see vehicles in their driveways.
If people are at home, what are they doing? Especially during this summer when the weather has been great: not too hot like some areas of the country that are suffering from brutal heat waves and not wet, either. Rain this season been occasional and hasn’t really hampered any major outdoor events to my knowledge.
Gardeners, rejoice! You’ve had plenty of time in the sun (pardon the pun) to weed your gardens, plant flowers or trees, trim hedges, etc., in this agreeable weather, so where are you?
I’d think I’d see people outside performing projects and improvements that need done around my own home: power washing the exterior of the house, sowing grass seed for the bald spots in our yard, painting a faded wooden patio wall or touching up the house’s trim, filling the bird bath and bird feeders, yet, none of this.
Do people sunbathe anymore? Probably not what with the fears drilled into us regarding skin cancer, but don’t people just like being out in the sun sometimes?
Where is everybody, indeed.
Oddly, the only time I do see people outside their homes they’re doing the same thing: mowing their lawns. Nothing else. Ever. And another odd thing: I never see anyone using a push mower, always a riding lawn mower. Always. And the people are always middle aged and pudgy. I’d think with school out of session, I’d see some youngsters mowing a lawn to earn their allowance, or making some extra money, but no.
The only people I can observe beyond a drive-by glance are my neighbors, Norman and Sharon, who live kitty-corner across from me. Both in their mid-sixties, Norman works freelance as a truck driver; Sharon is retired. They love their lawn. Both of them apparently take turns mowing, keeping their grass so short and neat the PGA would salivate. It’s practically a putting green. Beyond Norman working on his truck or Sharon walking their blind and deaf dog, they apparently hibernate in their home, but like so many other people who are at home and aren’t outside, what are they doing inside?
Home improvements? Online classes? Playing on their phones? Writing the Great American Novel? Knitting a sweater? Anything constructive? Doubtful.
Methinks it’s TV. As with my octogenerian father, he’s idle in front of it several hours a day, hobbies or brain games, be damned. But even he goes outside and sits on the porch of my Amish-built-shed-soon-to-be-man-cave/studio and waves at the passersby. I’ve yet to experience that sight on my travels for work.
But I guess it’s something I can always hope for, right?
Oh, the finale for the TZ episode? A twist ending, of course.
Turns out the man is actually a serviceman and he’s been fantasizing. He’s been isolated, participating in a psychological experiment for the space program to see how long he could handle being alone while traveling to the Moon, until finally he broke; visualizing a place where he’s the last man on earth, with nary a soul in sight.
Yes, I often think of that episode but it doesn’t answer the question for me: Where is everybody?
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