At Home, Off Line

Headline in today's NYTimes: Out on the town, always on line. Naturally the story was about young people twitting, texting and otherwise keeping in touch with their multitudes of friends all while enjoying (?) their nightlife.

Here’s our version of life in the fast lane:

First of all it's far from fast. We sleep late and don't have our smart phones (we don't have any), iPads or laptops in our bed. At breakfast, we read the Sunday paper (or as much as we want to at the time.)

Then it's household chores. Today was a lovely day so much-postponed yard work was completed. Still no phone calls or texts from anyone. Just us, talking to each other directly. (Full disclosure: I did check email. Nothing but solicitations.)

Then we composed and wrote a thank you note. Emphasis on wrote. Not email or text; a handwritten note with complete words and sentences. Put it in an envelope, addressed it by hand and put a stamp on it. We'll mail it tomorrow. How retro is that?

Then we called friends on a real phone and made a date to play Bridge at their home in the afternoon. We played just under two hours and there was not a cell phone in sight. We also talked to one another. It was a very social interlude.

The evening was equally quiet. My wife made one real phone call to a friend to set up a date for the morning. We watched some TV and read more of the Sunday paper; the real paper, not the online version.

And now, when I suspect the younger generation is just getting ready to go out on the town, always on line, we're turning off and turning in.