After giving further thought to my hypothesis last week, I came to the realization Don Draper HAS to die. The alternative is unthinkable.
While I’ve been going through boxes that came up from Texas, I found one full of memorablia from my grandpa. Overall, he was the coolest. So cool that I’m really just writing this blog to help me practice writing so I can tell his fascinating story some day. (Lesson one – stop with the run-on sentences.) He’s a hero. But I found something in the box that could have been the saddest thing ever.
I found, complete with plastic graduation cap, a certificate for when Max Morris graduated from Sears Tool University in the 90s. Yep, after a lifetime of record-breaking achievements in sport and business, he went to kill time and make an extra buck at a Sears. He was working there pretty close to when he passed away.
I relay this story because we can not let the same future beseech Don Draper. I have found many parallels between Don and Betty Draper and what I picture Max and Pat Morris were like. That’s a story for another day. But we have already seen Don as a character that is becoming less and less important at his work. Please let him exit stage left before he becomes a Wal-Mart greeter.
Think about the grandparent-like folk in your life. If they were the type who had amazing careers, are they doing grand retirement things? I only have a small pool to pick from, but I think those that lived in the hey day of their 30s and 40s are pretty quiet in old age. Those from a mid-level manager type lifestyle are using these years to do all the things they wish they did before. And, of course, they all need to pay for the high blood pressure medicine somehow…
P.S. In case Don does live on, he already has a Twitter account. In the 1980s, since he’s that awesome. It is kinda brilliant.
