Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less

OK, so we are not alone.

And I don’t mean in a “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” sort of way. I mean my sweetie, Rebecca, and I are not alone in being late to the game when it comes to Pokémon GO.

You see, we didn’t start playing until a couple of months ago, more than a year and a half after the game hit the U.S. It was a major craze when it arrived, luring kids of all ages out of their homes to tread the sidewalks and streets of their communities. Players search for elusive virtual creatures that can be seen in real time, real world settings using smart phones.

Since Rebecca and I didn’t get smart phones until about five months ago, we didn’t start playing until early January. I wrote a previous blurb about our experience of leaving behind our pre-paid phones, stepping into the 21st century and arriving late to the game of Pokémon GO.

Though I knew there were still Pokémon GO players out there, I figured they were far and few between. After all, it has been almost two years since the phone app debuted. When the app was initially released, the flurry of social media posts, including photos of captured Pokémon GO characters and their locations, seemed ubiquitous.

That hasn’t been the case in a while, so I figured the fad had fizzled out. I figured Rebecca and I were a pretty rare breed in that sense.

This past weekend proved that wasn’t the case.

Apparently special “Community Days” held for the app encourage players to get out during a special few hours on a particular day. During this time, unique or unusual Pokémon can be caught or other features or items not otherwise available are up for grabs.

One of these “Community Days” was Saturday afternoon.

Fortunately the three hour span was before the rain started, but I’m not sure it would have made much difference to the players. They came from everywhere. They walked across parking lots and down sidewalks. They paused near downtown buildings.

Because downtown Elizabethtown, Kentucky, includes an abundance of Pokéstops, players wandered all over the area.

It wasn’t difficult to tell Pokémon GO players from other downtown visitors. Pokémon GO players carried their smart phones in front of them, gazing at the screens every so often. They formed groups with strangers to go on “raids,” a way to combat Pokémon and earn specific rewards. Rebecca and I ended up in one of those raids with a group of some eight to 10 friendly strangers.

The point is, Pokémon GO is still alive and well. While it might be out of its heyday, it is by no means dead.

And Rebecca and I? Well, while we are not quite to the point of being obsessed, our enthusiasm for the game shows no sign of dying anytime soon. And, apparently, we are not alone.