Challenged Senior Citizen...

[Guest]

Story of a Challenged Senior Citizen...

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1,800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [blue tooth but it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-cal-cu-lating." You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me (after 50+ years I certainly hope so).

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings. It was a lot easier when it was connected to a cord (for the kids out there reading this, yes, there used to be a cord attached to the phone - and we only had one phone in the house! I won't even go into "party lines" but older folks know what I'm talking about).

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me. Now, I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual."

Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

[SivartM]

For some odd reason I can't relate to this at all. :\

*checks his Twitter feed*

[Guest]

I figure you could relate dgrimm.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I remember when we had a party line telephone. I even had to use a phone where you had to crank it to make it ring to the operator.

[Guest]

I've never done that, but I do remember when my Grandmother had a party line.

We're dating ourselves.

[karl]

We're dating ourselves.

When you are dating yourself, be sure not to just pull up in the driveway and honk, open the door for yourself, and have yourself home before curfew. Your dad will be watching from behind the curtains.

[LifeHiscost]

Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.

Richard, I had a really hard time reading through your post as it was difficult holding on to my seat while laughing so hard. I hope you don't mind if I copy it and send it to some of my relatives who might wonder why the cell phone they spent good money to send me two weeks ago is still waiting to use some of the initial battery charge for the first call.

I remember when Jay Leno, at least a couple decades ago as memory serves me, made a joke about visiting his parents after buying them a VCR, a month or so after the purchase it was still sitting in the entertainment center blinking 12:AM.

The greatest consolation I get out of that is to visualize what the younger generation is going to feel like when they go through the same thing in due time, at least if the Lord should delay His coming for that long.

Misery loves company, but then that's another thread.

My hat's off to you for starting my day off on the right foot.

Blessings!

[SivartM]

I give up... what's a party line?

[Gail]

LOL Sivart, a party line was a telephone line that you shared with someone. If someone from the other household was on the line, you interrupted their call if you picked up the receiver to dial out. Then you would have to hang back up and wait for them to get off to free up the line for you.

A party line was cheaper, just because of the inconvenience.

Our family never had a party line that I can remember.

[Woody]

I used to have a crank phone. We would crank (wind-up) the phone which alerted someone in the post office that we wanted to place a call. After she got finished selling stamps ... she would put our call in. That just would not fly with the youth of today.

They would probably get 'cranky'.

[SivartM]

LOL Sivart, a party line was a telephone line that you shared with someone. If someone from the other household was on the line, you interrupted their call if you picked up the receiver to dial out. Then you would have to hang back up and wait for them to get off to free up the line for you.

[Jeannieb43]

Woody, I can't believe you're old enough to have lived with a crank phone. Not even I have ever had one of those! [Though we did visit an elderly auntie when I was a child who had such a phone, mounted on her living room wall. It even had a place to rest your arm while you held the phone, waiting for the call to go through.]

[Woody]

Yes. Well .... I was living in a foreign country.

However ... I do remember as a child ... that we had a 'party line' while in this country. I also remember having to drink powdered milk instead of fresh milk in those tough days.

We would buy it by the 50 pound sack.

I found it interesting as a young child .... to listen to the conversations of the other 'party' on the party line. Now before you boo ... I was just too young to realize the moral problem of doing such an activity. Somehow I managed to realize I should keep quiet while listening though. :)

[Guest]

Shame on you, you eavesdropper you. With folks like you around, no wonder people started going to private lines. Imagine how easy it was for Russia to spy on us.

[GreatLakesGramma]

You don't have to be really old to have had a crank phone as a child. Some small, local phone companies were very late catching up with progress. My husband and I are only in our 50s, and his family had one when he was a child. We lived in the same area when we were first married, 30 years ago, and we had to have a party line there, because private lines weren't available yet.

My family had a party line when I was a child, and although we didn't have a crank phone, my parents did have to call the operator to make a long distance call, and tell her the number they wanted to call and their own number. I learned our phone number, and my grandmother's phone number, when I was just a preschooler, just from hearing my mother call her mother regularly.

[Guest]

My hat's off to you for starting my day off on the right foot.

Blessings!

I'm glad you liked it Life.

[GreatLakesGramma]

Richard, lots of kids did that back in those days. Some adult busybodies did too, unfortunately. Everybody knew who was on their line, so if you giggled or something, they'd tell your parents, and then you got in big trouble.

[Guest]

I see. I wonder how long it took the adult busybodies to adopt new methods after party lines went out.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

we had a crank phone (party line) in the '60's. My mom still has it in her garage.

[nuff sed]

Seems to me that we still have a lot of 'cranks. nuff sed

[Woody]

Seems to me that we still have a lot of 'cranks. nuff sed

nuff sed

[phkrause]

I don't believe our family had either when I was young and living in NYC.

[Guest]

I didn't know they had phones when you were young.

[phkrause]

I didn't know they had phones when you were young.

good one Richard

[Guest]

I couldn't resist.