In 1961 my grandfather Dale broke a leg in a farming accident. It was seldom talked about, and the details are kind of a fuzzy, as I recall a tractor rolled over. While recovering from that, he had a major heart attack. Being the early 1960's, before the days of drive by bypass surgery, his doctors advised him to retire. In the spring of 1962 they sold the farm, bought a 30 foot travel trailer and a new Chevy pickup truck and retired.
When they left the farm for the last time, they had the phone disconnected, and never had a phone again. My grandfather lived 14 years, my grandmother almost 30 years without a phone. And you know, they did okay. They split their time between Michigan and Florida. They moved anytime my grandmother had a spat with the neighbors, two or three times a year, she was not an easy person to please. Over the years they owned a couple of "permanent homes," but those seldom lasted long. The nomadic life, living without a phone, or a fixed address suited them just fine.
Could you live a disconnected life?
I turn my phone off at night, when I am home it is on the desk in my bedroom, I only answer the house phone if I know who it is on the caller ID. I moderate this modern day addiction, but I would find it hard to live without.
The resemblance to your maternal grandmother is uncanny!!!
ReplyDeleteI would miss the internet, but in time could live a disconnected life. I can go days without hearing the news. SOOOOOOOOO burnt out of hearing it. Reading it. Im like you with the phone...but I don't have a land line any longer.
like you, I only answer my house phone if I know the caller ID. same with the emergency cell phone. you cannot live without a phone, but you CAN adjust your usage accordingly. same with the computer e-mail/internet.
ReplyDeleteI would also find it hard to live without. I turn mine to silent at night. And I love that simple little story about your grandmother!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big phone user, but I would want to have one handy all the time in case of emergencies. For my regular communication, I use email more than anything else, quite frankly.
ReplyDeleteHoney, I was born disconnected! I have a landline and my out going message tells folks that I screen. If I know who's calling, I may pick up (my baby sister can be a nuisance), solicitors just hang up. Cell phone ithingy? Emergencies only and always turned off. I back away from the internet periodically to disconnect. Commenting, I find, is addicting. Blogging would probably kill me!
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