The deputy sighed. "I know how you feel. My old grandfather cried when we put him in. But we couldn't support him and he had no way of making a living.
"The world changes faster than the people in it, Pop. Science all the time lets us live longer, but faster and faster it keeps changing the way we do things. An old guy falls so far behind the times, the only place for him is a Home."
"But if a man wants to stay out," said Ollie, "I don't see why he can't."
"Old guys are dangerous to the rest of us. I saw three people killed, not long ago, trying to dodge an oldtimer who walked too slow to get across a wide street before the lights changed against him."
"They could have slowed the signal," Ollie said. "But no! Always it's the man who has to adapt to the machine, not the machine to the man. The only way to get by in this world is to find some machine you just naturally fit."
"You sound kind of bitter."
"Why not? I used to be a stock control clerk, keeping track of spare parts supply for a nationally distributed line of machine tools. I had twenty girls working for me. Then one day they put in a big computer."
He sighed. "No wonder these suicide salesmen do so well. If I had the money I'd hire somebody to knock me off right now."
"Don't be stupid!" the deputy snarled. "You wouldn't be losing your freedom if you'd had sense enough to stay out of a fight. And when you talk about suicide salesmen, you sure prove you can't take care of yourself!"
But the deputy was kinder than he sounded. Rather than allege incompetence, he charged Ollie with an assault against Rost. So instead of being remanded to the geriatricians, Ollie was kept overnight in jail and ordered held, next morning, for want of fifty dollars bail.