Peter Cummings 06

September 6, 2003

Abstract

Peter Cummings relates an anecdote about vacationing with Max and getting a 3 AM lesson in economics from his 93-year-old friend.
Credit: Mort Crim Communications

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I think one of the most memorable times I’ve had with Max was the weekend that I spent with him in the Dominican Republic a couple of years ago. My wife Julie volunteered me to be his travel partner for the weekend and I didn’t realize until I got to our destination that we were actually going to be sharing a bedroom. And, you know, Max’s mobility has been constrained in the last few years and I was really fearful that he would get up in the middle of the night, look for the bathroom, fall, hit his head on the floor, and we’d lose him on my watch. So, I had a very un-relaxing weekend. And I remember that I had just fallen asleep—one of the two or three nights that we were there—and fifteen minutes later he turns the light on. And I get up and I see he’s seated, and it’s three o’clock in the morning, and he’s seated on the side of his bed and he’s got his head in his hand and I can tell he’s pondering something. And I said, ‘Max, are you O.K.?’ and he looked at me and he said, ‘What do you think the economy is going to be like in six months?’ So, here’s this man, ninety-three years old, in a vacation spot, Saturday night, lying in bed, three o’clock, trying to figure out the economy six months down the road. And then he proceeded to tell me his thoughts on the economy for the next six months. And he finished off by saying, ‘Not that what you were looking for was a lesson in Economics at three in the morning.’ But that is Max: the mind is always working.