INGRID DOULTON | Growing Old | Contact
A largely invisible and self-loathingly meek city worker said his drive home to Betoota Heights tonight was punctuated by The Cars’ 1984 classic ‘Drive’ which allowed him to have a moment of ‘deep introspection’.
It was in those 3 minutes and 54 seconds of genre-defining New Wave/Post-Punk that Derek Copeland was able to identify the many moments in his 44 years on this planet where he’d made the wrong decision and lived to regret it.
The softly-spoken Virgo spoke to our reporter via mobile phone from inside his salary-sacrificed Ford Mondeo as it ticked itself cool on the driveway of his rapidly depreciating display home.
“I got home and the song was only halfway through, so I did what any middle-aged man currently going through an existential crisis and I drove around the block until the song was over,” he said.
“You know what I mean?”
Our reporter did not.
Derek went on to explain that he’d just been overlooked for a promotion at work, which is something to do with a computer in an office in town somewhere.
Coupled with the fact he’s having Christmas with his wife’s family for the second year in a row, Copeland said he doesn’t have much to look forward to.
“But moments like the one I just described to you make me happy, in a way,”
Confronted by this glimpse into middle-age, our reporter hung up the phone and cut the landline with a steak knife left on the table from lunch.
More to come.
