We entertained the young folks with our reminiscing. Specifically, we were talking about technology. Technology in my children’s day was far different than it is today. It is no wonder that we get stuck with the modern devices.

When my children were growing up, there were no cell phones. The only type of phone was the type that was anchored to the wall or sat on a table. Once we got a phone that was wireless, that was an upgrade. I recall that my son brought us the first portable phone since he was tired of using the old style that we had on the wall.

When my husband was doctoring out in Cleveland, I bought phone cards. There was a very long number that you had to call just to be able to make a connection. I bought several cards so the children would have one to call us and we could call them. We had dealt with public phones that you had to put money into when Dick’s dad was in the Jamestown Hospital. One day I went to call his sister to tell her we would stay for the treatment and bring him back home I did not have enough coins to put in. Luckily, the nurse on the floor let us use their phone.

There also was no Internet. If you needed to look up something you went to the library. There were plenty of resources there. While I was in college, I spent a lot of time in the library. Even when I was working on my Master’s degree, I used the library to do my research.

The kids just kept laughing as we told stories about the phone and the lack of Internet service. The look on their faces was priceless. They could not imagine doing some of the things that we did.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the old party lines. The kids could not even imagine that.

Then, there were the televisions. We had a small screen with a big cabinet. That was after we had a portable model that we had to hold the rabbit ears to be able to see the show. We thought we had it made when we got a rotor for our antenna. Now we could get stations from Erie and Buffalo. We all watched the same programs because that was all we could get. We got ABC, NBC, and CBS. That was it. Surprisingly, we got a better selection of shows in those days than we get today with the abundance of channels.

Technology was moving forward, but it was moving slowly. Especially, when you lived in the country. I found it very hard to explain about the phone cards. They just did not get that. Fifty years have elapsed since I first moved to the country. Now we have the Internet, but it is unreliable. It goes off and on frequently. It takes a long time to get linked in, too.

Whenever I have to contact a repair service, I alert them to the fact that I have very slow Internet. We have had many nice conversations while we waited for the thing to boot up. One time I talked with a lady from India who was going to be going on maternity leave. I could hear the conversation in the background since I was sure she was working for home.

My son recently spent eight weeks without water. He was told there were eight people ahead of him when the guy first appeared. They carried water home from work. They went down to where their trailer used to be and got water there. It was getting to be dangerous because the animals needed water and they could not carry that much. Luckily, the repair was not as comprehensive as they first expected. He had changed the pump but that did not work. The guy from the company told them he believed there was water in the well and the problem was in the pipe leading to the house. Merry Christmas! They now have water once again.

I cannot imagine how young people would have coped with that. They grew up just opening the spigot and water was there. Showers were very short. They had a water saving device and could heat water to pump through it. Water to flush was garnered from the pond or a rain barrel if it happened to rain.

There is no end to the coping skills of people who live in the country. Whatever came our way we dealt with. When I had to go for parts for machinery, I always took a piece of what I needed. Even then I often came home with the wrong part. I could not call my husband because he would be out in the field. I doubt a cell phone would have made much difference because our signal for that is poor also.

One night as I drove to my daughter’s for supper, I got a call from my son. He wanted to know If I just sent him message. I told him that message had been sent a couple weeks earlier and evidently it just went out!

Although technology is not good out here, I would not trade my home in the country to live in town. I can cope. After all, I lived without technology for a long time!

Ann R. Swanson is a Russell resident. Contact her at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.