Recently Mike and I made a trip to San Antonio, Texas to visit the Riverwalk area. My husband travels quite often but since leaving my job 12 years ago I now only travel for vacations. Friend let me tell you, communication has changed! As we waited at the gate to board our plane I noticed everyone was talking, but not to each other!
Everyone (and I mean everyone) had a cell phone. Entire families, traveling on what I assume to be “family vacations,” had their ears pressed to phones, yakking away to invisible people while not giving a nod to their travel companions. I found it strange. I asked my husband— just who are they talking to?
The teenagers might be saying a last goodbye to a boyfriend or girlfriend, but who is Mom chatting it up with at the airport? A neighbor? A coworker? Her mother? And what about Dad? Last minute business details? Game picks?
I really wanted to know who was on the end of that phone line but I didn’t dare question them face-toface.
Perhaps if I had their phone number I could call them and ask.
My childhood family vacations involved lots of talking, too, but it was with each other. Am I too young to long for the good ole days?
I have a cell phone but I am kind of an emergency-only cell phone user. Texting still seems cumbersome to me. I never get the letter I want so my messages come out in a cryptic code that even I can’t solve once I’ve sent it.
It’s not that I don’t like to talk to people, I just prefer a conversation with a real person, not a garbled “Can you hear me now?”
And don’t even get me going on dropped calls. Many times I have been listening to a great story from my sister-cousin only to have her voice disappear at the punch line.
Call me old-fashioned but I like to “visit.” My mom often had neighbor ladies over for tea and talk. These times were chatty and fun. Recipes were shared, usually peices of cake or muffins were tasted, and kids played together. These discussions would have lost their personal touch over a cell phone.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not on a rampage to ban cell phones from homes and airports but can we somehow encourage and improve our personal discussion time? Maybe limit the use of cell phones during family trips or dinnertime? And what about (God forbid) turning the phone off once in awhile? Because after all, is the person on the other end of the line more important than the person sitting next to you?
Just who are we talking to?
True happiness arises, in the first
place, from the enjoyment of one’s
self, and in the next, from the
friendship and conversation of a
few select companions.
Joseph Addison
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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