Thursday, February 26, 2015

Dancing On Toothpicks, Or How i survived A Week On Facebook

Omy. The picture above was a postcard sent approximately a hundred and eight years ago, before the internet really caught on.
If you wanted to howdy someone, you wrote it on a card, applied a stamp, posted and waited a few weeks or a month for a reply. You know, like Internet Explorer.
Moving nearly three quarters of a century up this garden path, while looking for the original postcard to check the date, I found something else. Indeed.
Back in the darker ages of High School, some organization thought up the idea of students having "Pen Pals" from different countries.
My Pal was a Scottish girl named Ann, and I just found a letter she wrote in 1977.
Here's the funny thing-in 1978 I found myself somehow in Scotland, in Edinburgh...and I was able to find and speak with her on the phone. Surprised puts it lightly, but it was a nice conversation.
These electronic days? Kids have no wonder at the miracle of instant connections with everyone from their American Idol favorites to the 13th Earl of Hollandaise.
Facebook. I used to think of FDW as my solitary soapbox on the intrawebs-now the chaos chorus of a billion shouters and singers have joined me on theirs.
Some good, some bad, some?
I will keep at it for now. I might even have something of substance to share. Wait a month and we'll see.

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