HELLO YOURSELF

I spent several hours today trying to find recordings of old movie stars saying hello. It is much more difficult than you might think. After a while, I tried singers, but that was also difficult. I decided that perhaps if I broadened it to bankers and car mechanics and soda jerks and policemen and store clerks that it might be easier, but it wasn’t. I looked out in the street to see if there were any children playing, or perhaps a crossing guard, but no. I even considered traveling, perhaps abroad, but that would be an awful lot of work for all I really needed, which was a hello, and what if they said hello in French? Finally I gave up and went downstairs and turned on the tape recorder and just plain said HELLO myself. The next thing I heard was: How are you? And then, just around the corner, the moon.