Technology "generation gaps" can run both ways

For the second year running, the La Crosse area's Relay for Life was held at Logan High School, on the practice field. I can't speak for the mens' room of course, but the ladies' room in the concession building is in amazing shape, considering some of the vintage features that give away it age. In particular is the large semi-circular "fountain" sink, whose water is turned on and off by means of a likewise semi-circular foot-rail.

I had just turned up my jacket sleeves to wash my hands when I noticed a lady of roughly high-school age waving her hands in the air next to the fountain holes. For a second, I wondered why she wasn't washing her hands instead. Then the light-bulb went on: "You step on the bar below," I said, and pressed it down with my foot. Her laugh was embarrassed, so I tried to be reassuring: "If I hadn't gone to a high school that was built in the Fifties, I probably wouldn't know that either."

At such times, it's rewarding to be a bridge. But given the boundless creativity my nieces and nephews show in informing me how old and unfashionable I am, I won't say that I didn't enjoy that for other reasons.