Forever Yours
Lester got tired of listening to his old fogey friends complain about things not being as good today as they were back in the day. They didn’t like seeing all the young kids playing on cell phones and iPads and computers. “They should be out fishing and climbing trees,” said Fred. “Like we did when we were kids. They’re going to get fat and lazy,” he proclaimed, apparently unaware of his own protruding belly.
“Give it a rest,” said Lester, one day in the middle of a game of Chess. “Live and let live,” I say. “It’s none of our business. In fact, I think it would be great to have one of those thingamajigs. Looks like fun to me. Better than sitting around gossiping about stuff you can’t change.”
So Lester went out the next day and with the help of a kind salesman at a computer store he bought himself a new laptop and signed up for weekly lessons so he could surprise his friends and family when he learned how to use it.
After a few weeks he was feeling pretty good and quite proud of himself for what he’d accomplished in a short time. Lester invited Fred over to show him what he could do on his new computer.
He’d stored some photos he received by email from his daughter and he set aside a few messages he wanted to read and respond to later on. He opened the picture file and there were the gems he planned to show to Fred. Then he demonstrated how to compose and send an email.
“See, Fred? Easy as pie. You just type in your message and press the ‘send’ symbol and off it goes.”
Fred frowned at the sight of such amazing technology. He scratched his head. “One thing I don’t understand.”
“What’s that?” Lester thought he’d been very clear in demonstrating what to do.
“Where do you put the stamps?”
Lester chuckled. “No stamps. This mail is free.”
“Not exactly.” Fred burst out laughing. “You have to buy a thousand dollar computer in order to send free mail. Doesn’t make any sense to me.” Fred tapped his temple. “I’ll stick to paper and pen and a forever stamp.”
“Know when to email vs. when to meet.”
~ Justin Rosenstein
Fun story, Karen! Miss and love you!
Thanks, Bev. Miss and love you too.
Very cute! Made me laugh and I do have a friend who could use a class for all things computer. Do you know of any classes around our area?
Thanks, Lynn. I don’t know of classes other than through Apple. But I don’t have the details. Probably a search on google.com would reveal something.
Love your stories and your heart, Karen!
Thanks, Barb. I miss working with you. Thanks for all the great years we had polishing my writing and seeing it published.
LOVE IT! However, I do admit that it does bother me to see so many young people AND OLDER ONES TOO sitting together, working their fingers and not talking to each other nor looking outside at the beauty God has given to us. I also admit I would be lost without my computer and email’s !! Big smile!!
I admit that I just do not understand how we know what the letters of the alphabet mean when you sign off from texting someone. For instance, it seems to me LOL should mean “lots of love”. I had no idea it meant “laugh out loud”! Apparently I am not the only one because I heard of a lady whose friend sent her a text to tell her of a death in the family and when she responded to her she signed it LOL ? Another easy one to have a double meaning is BFF-“best friends forever ” or “Big fat fanny” ? Oh, well, as long as we have a great sense of humor we will be okay!!
Thanks for the laughter in this one !! LOL and BFF- choose the ones you want! Love to you. Margaret
“laughter is good medicine-it says so in the Bible”
Thanks, Margaret. Yes, computers and texting and Internet slang have really changed our conversation! (or lack of it) 🙂
Karen, I forgot to mention that when I asked my daughter how we are supposed to know what the letters stand for, she simply said: ” How did you know what “swak” meant that you used to put on the back of your envelopes? ” There may be someone reading this that does not know it means “sealed with a kiss” but I have no clue who made it up!! Margaret
I do remember SWAK and haven’t thought about that in decades. Thanks for a good laugh.