Where Have All the Pencils Gone?
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I sat on the train and watched my mom complete her crossword puzzle with her No. 2 pencil. I was thinking about how I hadn’t even seen anyone use an actual pencil for a long time. I remember it used to be a staple of my school supply purchases every August – but that was 33 years ago. As she worked away, I looked at my smartphone and pecked away with my thumbs uploading a tweet.
“What are you going to do when you have to sharpen one of those pencils?” I asked.
“I will get someone to sharpen them.”
Suddenly an image of a pencil sharpener flashed through my mind transporting me back to 5th grade. “Really? People actually have pencil sharpeners still?” I responded.
We talked about the evolution of travel and how writing is dying – real, actual pencil/pen and paper writing. My mom mentioned that they are not even teaching cursive any longer in schools. I had no idea! The age thing really makes you want to hang on to your past – in fact you claw to it. I can feel that resistance to change in me many days since I hit my 40’s – it’s honestly a feeling that I have to fight.
On this mother daughter trip through Nova Scotia, each night my mom would hand write her notes and I would type away at night on my laptop. One night she had me doubled over in laughter when she said, “I’ll find a restaurant we can go to tonight.” And she proceeded to pick up the phone book and look in the yellow pages. I sat there in disbelief thinking about how I had forgotten that we used phone books in those ways not that long ago!
I think now about everything we have at our fingertips, our immense desire for real time information, not to mention people in space, and data, data, data. A constant stream of data flowing through our lives. In a lifetime – my mother has seen an immense amount of change. It makes me a bit ashamed as I think about how I often give her a bad time about dealing with change (normally when I have to help her with her Facebook account – something I think is one of the most torturous things I’m asked to do in my life). But truth be told – she has rolled with things really amazingly.
My mother found a pencil sharpener much to my surprise. She also found a restaurant in the yellow pages . However I did add a little high tech to the decision when I found a Groupon for the restaurant she picked in the yellow pages and I used my Telecom Square mobile hotspot device to hop online in the car and purchase the Groupon over my smart phone and got us 50% off our meal in Digby. I do love technology!
My mother also decided to fulfill my request of writing a guest post about her experiences on the trip by hand-writing her story. I asked her to focus on how travel has changed based on her experiences on the Nova Scotia trip. I included a bit of the hand written accounts here – but I just couldn’t do it…I had to type it out…I’m a failure at low tech!
If you’d like to see a 77 year old’s take on how technology has changed travel and personal interaction – then I think you’ll enjoy this piece handwritten by my mother. It is a perspective on travel that you might have forgotten. It will transport you back to your family road trips and make you realize just how much our world has changed – and continues to change.
Read my mother’s story here:
Nova Scotia – The land of green forests, fishing boats, and ocean bottom By Marilyn Ott
Sherry, this is brilliant! The idea behind the post as well as the post within a post. I feel like it’s Xmas and I’ve just opened a gift within a gift. Heading to the link now to read Marilyn’s words.
When I went away on my first big trip (living in London and traveling around Europe for 5 months) I asked my parents how they could figure out/book travel before the internet. I’m not a huge technology buff, and usually actually dislike it more than like it, but I really could not comprehend how people made travel plans before they could go online…
Yup – I don’t know if I could have done it without staying connected at some level. But I suppose we all adapt.
The image of your mother’s handwriting is absolutely beautiful and while I have only just read what can be seen, I look forward to clicking through to the rest. It’s impossible not to feel sad at the lost of handwriting, but there so many wonderful aspects to the digital age that on the whole, I feel the pros outweigh the cons. For what it’s worth, I know a multitude of people who often write by hand and at least on rare occasions, even reach for the yellow pages. Beautiful post! Thank you!
Traveling with someone from a different era can really give you a different perspective. Spending a leisurely time working on a crossword puzzle or just looking out the window is already a vacation in itself. You are not preoccupied by a to-do list or a boss that seems to love harassing you.
Thanks for your comment Monnette – it was really fun to do generational travel – I learned a lot – I think we were good for each other!