I did something the other day that I absolutely SWORE I would never do again. I bought a television. I was at Sam’s Club picking up some things and there was an incredible deal on a 40″ Samsung Smart TV. I’ve been wanting to watch some of my collection of movies and this seemed like a good deal. Besides the movies, it’s not a bad idea to stay connected when there is a tragedy…like yesterday’s emergency on the OSU campus. I have to say, I felt ill after watching the news for a short time so I checked back in occasionally for updates instead of staying glued to it.

As I flipped through channels, I paused to watch a few minutes of ET: The Extraterrestrial. I remember watching that when it first came out and the cinematography seemed SO advanced. Now it is terribly dated. The scene I came in on has a TV playing the background while ET is raiding the fridge. There is a commercial playing where a young woman answers the phone and calls out to the rest of the family that it’s their uncle calling long distance from California. She tells him she’ll talk fast since she knows how expensive long distance is. He assures her it won’t be now that he can use the new “weekend rates”. That made me smile with memories.

When I was about four or five years old, we had a big black phone with no dial on it. You picked up the handset and an operator immediately responded with “Number please.” I still remember one of my favorite aunt’s number started with HU for Hudson. One day my mom left me in the house while she went out to hang the wash. Even though I was little, I could read and soon found my Aunt Rosie’s number in Minnesota in the address book. When the operator came on, I “disguised” my voice and read the number off to her. My plan nearly worked but my mom came back inside and caught me just before what would have been an expensive phone call was connected. Lucky for me, I suppose.

Here at the farm, there was a party line. I would sneak and pick up the phone to eavesdrop on Mrs. Clark talking to someone. Grandma would whup me if she caught me doing that. We lived in town just 30 miles away and it was a rare occurrence to talk to Grandma on the phone in those early years. We got a letter from her at least once a week. I still have some of them, written in her scrawling cursive. She would give us the news of the day, what was going on up and down the road. She’d let us know if she got a letter from any of the family. She’d tell us what was coming on in the garden and how many jars of this or that she had canned that week. Treasures that are lost in the era of the quick calls and texts of today.

I sat down the week before Thanksgiving and wrote some notes out to some of my fellow Sisters on the Fly. I love handwritten letters. I bought some cards the other day and will try to get Christmas notes out this week. I may have a TV now, but it’s my last thought to turn it on. I’ll still live the slower life this farm affords me. It makes my heart more peaceful. ❤️

“The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭15:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬