(Lake Tahoe, west shore)

Jackie has her phone ready
as Ryan nimbly hoists himself up
onto a piling on the pier, a good
ten feet above the water.

Balancing like a tightrope walker,
he does not teeter and takes his
first leap into the lake as she
captures his twisting flip.

Jackie, a bikini’d college student,
shoots video from the pier. Ryan,
also in college, is a cheerful young man
who seems not to be showing off
so much as literally testing the water
and delighting his friends.

We, old enough to be their grandparents,
enjoy the show, one of us shooting stills,
though also on a phone with
the rapid-fire action of what used
to be called a motor drive.

There is no motor, of course, no film,
but, he’s still got it as I often tell this
former newspaper photographer,
who, more than half century ago,
before motor drives, shot an exploding,
bomb-filled railcar, timing it perfectly,
just as the mushroom cloud reached
its peak.

He now employs that same muscle
as Ryan hurls himself backward,
landing feet first in the cold blue
of Lake Tahoe.

Ryan hollers as he surfaces
the first time, stunned as most are
by the fierce grip of Tahoe’s chill,
but on subsequent leaps, his face
pops up wearing a glittering smile,
happy to jump again.

We cheer, and the old photographer—
who in the long ago would have gotten
an address to send the kids a print—
airdrops one of his best digital images
to Jackie.

She happily returns the favor by sharing
her videos, reminding me why I spent
more than three decades with college
journalists and photographers,
guiding them in placing their work
in paper publications that could be
held in the hands.

All that changed with time
and technology, as things do.

What remains the same, however,
are young people with a sense
of kindliness toward older folks—
as well as a taste for adventure,
using the last of their summer
vacations to make memories that,
with luck, will last their lifetimes.

•••

With thanks to Ryan and Jackie for their
good sport-ness in sharing a bit of their fun
before they begin their new term at UC Santa Barbara.