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I brought my dad along with me to the market to get a few things. As we were driving in the car I was waiting to see if he'd spark up a conversation. He said nothing. I think at this point with Alzheimer's, you aren't really concerned about small talk. We get to the store and since his knees are bad I had him ride the electric scooter. It amazes me that he knows how to use it. Before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's he had his drivers license revoked, so it's been a few years since he drove a car. Anyway, he hopped on like it was nothing and he even backs up like a pro and then goes forward again. It cracks me up. As I was getting my things and placing them in the basket attached to the scooter, he looked at me in confusion and he said "do you want to get on this thing too?" I said "oh no, dad that is for you, I am fine". So, we'd move on down the store and this repeated a few more times. I wonder if because I was using his basket he felt that I was in need of the whole cart.
As we were checking out, the bag boy was talking in a loud, high pitched, Jerry Lewis voice. He was a little bit different I guess you could say. I looked over at my dad to see his reaction as this boy was talking to us. No reaction. Then the boy followed us out to the car so he could drive the cart back in to the store. He kept talking to us about nothing important and then we said goodbye to the nice boy and dad and I get in the car. Now, this is usually the time my dad says something. He didn't say anything so I said "what did you think about that?" He just smiled. I was looking for the pre-Alzheimer's dad to say something humorous. I could almost tell you word for word what he would say and the main word would be "marbles".
As we were driving home, he was very quiet. Had nothing to say at all. Occasionally, he would look over at me with big eyes and a very confused look on his face. I didn't say anything. We get home and my son ran out to help us unload the groceries. He said "Hi Grandpa" and my dad said "how high?" We all started laughing. I thought to myself, I knew he had it in him but I guess he was saving it for another occasion.
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