On a theme from Yeats

I have always been in awe of how much change my grandparents experienced.  I like telling my students of my grandfather who finished school in eighth grade, went to a technical college to learn telegraphy, worked in 26 towns in Kansas (mostly walking to work each day), drove a horse and buggy, rode trains, drove a car, watched a man walk on the moon, bore witness to four wars, and, most interestingly, had his mother-in-law living with his wife and three daughters for over forty years! He was a stoic man when I was old enough to understand him.  There wasn't too much that threw him off even keel.  He kept things simple and rarely strayed from his pattern. 

But that was normal for my family.  It was normal for me to hear the German language around my grandparents' house coming from both my grandparents and my great-grandmother who spoke very little English that I remember.  She did read to us grandkids.  Felix the Cat is the book I best remember hearing her reading us in perfect English with a very thick, German accent.  She and my grandparents never spoke sharply to us or about us...at least never in English! 

And that was normal for my family.  A family "get-together" meant just that:  all the family including aunts, uncles, cousins, and often my parents' cousins whom we were always instructed to call "Aunt" or "Uncle." We ate, watched the adults smoke and drink, mostly beer and drinks that smelled of cola and alcohol; we kids would find an empty room and play hide the thimble - there was nothing else to do at my grandparents house - or, if at a cousin's house, the boys and girls would divide up into two bedrooms, the girls listening to Beatles' albums, the boys discussing hunting, drinking, or dirty jokes. 

That was normal.  Not a lot changed early in my life. 

Now, nearing 50, I see why my grandfather enjoyed the patient pace to his life.  I miss my sisters nagging me about being on the phone when they wanted to call their "boyfriends" and talk quietly in the kitchen so mom and dad wouldn't hear too much.  I miss dialing, not pushing the keypad, but dialing.  Now each of my children have a phone number and a phone.  It's as if we live in completely different places.  When my family gets together, everyone holds his phone at the ready as if the next call or text will mean a prize or something splendid.  I see a world of people waiting, expectantly holding the phone in place to connect with...the next caller? a text? an update? 

And this is normal for my world. 

I believe my grandfather had it correct; just stay the course, there's enough going on around me already.