What I Learned Being Old School

 Technology is amazing. I remember what a big deal it was when my dad brought home a color TV. We soon learned how to adjust the color so everybody on the TV didn’t have green skin. 

My parents bought me an electric typewriter for my 21^st birthday!

I remember how important I thought I was when Roger bought me an answering machine (remember the ones that played a little song?)   Or when my father-in-law bought us our first computer.

I also remember how dumb became when I got my first cell phone. They’ve been smarter than me ever since.  I need someone thirty years younger to explain anything important to me. I’m a technology dinosaur.   

I ate with my daughter Anny at the Sunrise Café on Tuesday morning.  The Sunrise is my regular stop for oatmeal smothered in fruit. I have different breakfast buddies at least three days a week. They know me at The Sunrise, and greet me by name and with coffee. The waitresses are my friends and I know a lot of patrons by sight.  

The only technology involved in my breakfast is the coffee maker, the stove, and the overhead lights.

Anny and I ate, eggs and a pancake for her, and my regular for me. Morning light poured in the window and lit up her big blue eyes. I watched all her nuances of expression as she talked.

Finally I said, “This is the best way to talk. Face to face.”

She agreed.  And she is really, really good with technology!

I left The Sunrise that morning thinking that maybe I not such a dinosaur. That my breakfasat eating buddies and I were really doing something wonderful, creative and old school. That there really was something precious in face to face conversation. 

Technology is wonderful. I learned to skype  and I watch Norah roll across the living room floor in Lubbock, Texas.  And I already have an important skill. One I mastered years ago.

Come on down to The Sunrise.  I’ll introduce you to my favorite waitress. And I’ll buy the coffee and we can just talk face to face.