From The Olden Days Of Communications -Telegrams

Have you have ever seen a telegram? You know, from the old days of the 1960's? Yes, we had telephones then, but for a faster written message there was nothing like a telegram. This one was the way I learned that my grandfather, Claude Craig, died in Pittsburg, Kansas on 30 June 1961. I remember getting the telephone call from the telegraph office and then they sent the telegram by mail so I had the paper copy.

How different from today when we have constant contact with people. We can talk to folks even as we drive down the highway and when we are shopping in the grocery store. Folks seem to have so much vital news to share with other people that it can't wait until they get home. And imagine, we didn't even have voice mail to leave a message if no one answered the telephone. If someone called while we were out we had no caller ID to tell us who called. They just had to call back and hopefully we would be there to answer. How did we ever manage? The funny thing is, we did manage and we survived just fine.

We didn't have auto accidents because we were talking on the cell phone, sometimes actually killing other people and sometimes killing innocent children. But, after all, we are safer now because we wear seat belts and have air bags(g).

When we were driving in the car and we saw the person in the next car talking to themselves we wondered how long they had been out on the streets from the nearest mental institution. Let alone seeing two people sitting next to each other and not talking but texting to each other, or someone else, while enjoying each other's company. It seems there is something wrong with that picture, but maybe I am just stuck in the past.

Your question may be, "How could you have lived in such a backward time as the 1960's?" My answer is, "I am so glad I did and I wouldn't trade the memory of it for all the electronic gadgets we have now, no way."

Yes, finding this old telegram brought back memories of a simpler and more real time. Definitely not an easier time, but a time you could not understand if you didn't live there. I count myself lucky in the memory department. Just as you will 50 years from now thinking back to today. Isn't it great to be a human being? Patj