Author’s afterword:I suppose this story will always resonate most with baby boomers like me, though I hope it works on more than one level. I had three editorial responses: One editor rejected the story saying our society would never treat senior citizens this way. The second editor rejected the story saying our society already treats senior citizens almost this way. The third editor, Dean Wesley Smith, accepted it.
While many people expect science fiction to be focused on predictions, whether technological or social, the treatment of senior citizens in a facility of this kind was not my real interest in this story. I wanted to write about a character who was enjoying memories of his youth in a harmless way, while people around him react to his eccentricities. Because I grew up watching m
