The Kindness

Growing up in the 60's, I remember how easy it was to trust complete strangers. We never locked our doors (or windows), hitchhikers were common place, and door to door salespeople - complete strangers! - entered our house without a second thought (and Carol Jean still has a set of World Book Encyclopedias to prove it.) And neighbors were neighborly back then - at least in our neighborhood they were. It wasn't without its drawbacks, mind you. If you liked even the least bit of privacy, you were out of luck.

At that time, Carol Jean was raising me on her own while most of her immediate family lived about eight hours away. We would make that trek a few times a year - mostly on holidays - and I always remember sitting in the backseat (no seatbelt back in those days) jumping up and down, asking "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" and then settling back down as day gave way to night - laying across the back seat, looking up at the stars through the rear window, feeling the steady vibrating hum of the tires just below me. I used to love falling asleep to that. And still do, when I can relax long enough to let go of being a backseat driver (doesn't happen too much, let me tell ya). But I'm getting off track here a bit.

Carol Jean always had a thing for truck drivers - not a "thing" thing, but a thing. They helped pass the time on those long drives. Most of the roads we traveled back then were two lanes, so there was lots of passing going on. She would pass a trucker, then he would pass her. Then she would pass him again, then he would pass her. And on it went for miles. On one particular night, she had "befriended" a particular truck driver via this passing game - and because she had something of a lead foot (and still does!) she must have left him in the dust hours into the drive. For some reason, she had to pull off on the side of the road - I can't exactly remember why - perhaps just to stretch or get me situated. Sure enough, the trucker she passed miles back came upon her stopped car - and instead of racing past, he slowed down his rig and pulled off the road to a complete stop - just to check on Carol Jean to make sure she was okay. (I suppose he noticed she had a youngin' in the back, too).

When the 70's came - they seemed to usher in a decade of "stranger fear." I remember hearing about razor blades in Halloween candy, and creepy strangers hanging out in play grounds, and abductions and hitchhikers being picked up and left for dead somewhere. And it hasn't let up. The fear we have of each other seems to be almost paralyzing at times.

Carol Jean called me tonight with a story. She was in her den watching television when the house suddenly felt cold. She soon figured out why when she got up and discovered that the door leading to her garage was open (as was the actual garage door). And, knowing what that meant, she got on her coat and boots and went out in search of her dog, Daisy Mae - a.k.a. the "she devil."

She started down the sidewalk and, sure enough, there was Daisy a few houses down having a chat with the dogs who resided there. As my mom went up their driveway, her feet gave way, and she slipped on the ice, fell flat on her back, and smacked her head down on the hard ice. She laid there - a bit dizzy - unable to get up. A neighbor boy saw her and came racing down on his motorized tractor. A man across the street who was picking the ice off his windshield also saw her and rushed over. Between the two of them, they picked her up. The ice man took her - in his car - to her house. And the young man hoisted Daisy onto his tractor and drove her home, too. They took my mom into her house, got her settled on the couch and made sure she hadn't broken any bones. Thankfully, she didn't. But she had a mighty big knot on the back of her head. Once they were sure she was okay, they left.

An hour later, the neighbor boy came back with a man my mom had never met - must have been his father. He came in and checked out my mom and asked her a battery of questions - was she nauseous? Did she have double vision? (He must have been an EMT, Carol Jean said.) He wanted to make sure she didn't need to go to the hospital.

Tonight, Carol Jean feels very lucky to live in a neighborhood of neighborly neighbors. And I am so glad that there are people watching over her when I cannot. This isn't the first time my mom has received the kindness of strangers - and she has extended the same in her life many times over. It just makes me realize that should I do a good deed for a stranger, it's not really for a stranger, it's for someone's mom or dad or brother or sister. And someone just like me will be happy that I was there.

Instinct

The hullabahloo of the holidays is behind me, and I am left with a blur of memories, a few more pounds, a messy house, and .... my most favoritist gift of all, ever!!!!! (well, other than the heartwarming moments spent with family and friends, that is).

OK. So the truth is, I'm a gadget guru. Always have been. It may have started when I got two Panasonic donut radios for Christmas when I was in the fifth grade. Or perhaps when Carol Jean purchased a Fisher stereo receiver with separate turntable and kicka__ speakers! (I know they're to blame for my post 40 hearing loss.) Seriously. No one else in my inner circle had an ala carte stereo system at the time - one that played FM stations no less. (Because who even listened to FM stations back then? Well, we did.)

We also got a microwave soon after they were released, and of course when I studied in Europe, I just had to have a Walkman (actually it was some European brand knockoff with a hideous brown Naugahyde case and it weighed about ten pounds, but still - it had relatively small headphones!) And when I went off on my own I invested in a CD player (my very smart cousin Scott said they'd never catch on...HA!), a VCR, a video camera when Ry was born, soon followed by an old school Mac, a Palm Pilot (or two), several IPods (including a video model), a digital movie camera, a DVR cable box, wireless networking, high speed router, a Kitchen Aid mixer ... so you get the picture, right?

Well, all this gadget guru-ness somehow passed me by when it came to my cell phone selection. In fact, I've only had two cell phones in ten years. My most recent was a flip up, gorgeous blue, with speaker phone ability, but I did have to manually extend the antenna - to the snickers of a few of my previous co-workers (you know who you are....LAURA!) .... but it got the job done.

So get to the point already.... right? Well, one of Ryan's most coveted items on his holiday list was a new cell phone - the Samsung Instinct. So I wandered unsuspectingly into the Sprint store with him (and Grandma in tow as she was the official gift giver of phone) over the holidays. I was totally minding my own business when he showed me "the phone"..... I looked at it....and that was it. I was in love. (To those who know me, it was kinda like when I locked eyes with Fabio years ago at the bookstore when he was signing...who cares what he was signing? He could have signed a banana peel - - but that's another post).

Seriously. The Samsung Instinct. Have you seen this phone? It's definitely inspired by the IPhone, yet it has its own distinct personality. It has a touch screen for starters. It's sleek, small, black and shiny. Yet it has weight and it vibrates in the coolest way as it performs its functions (unless you turn that part off).

Do you want to know what I can do with this phone? No? Too bad. I can text. I can give it voice commands. I can say Chinese food and it pulls up every Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood and beyond, and it will give me directions to all of them. I can ask it to "call home" "call Mom" "call John" "call Ryan" "call Anyone Who Will Answer!" and it politely asks me to confirm each time: "Did you say, call home?" "Yes! Yes I did!" And it does.

It takes pictures. And sends pictures. And takes video. And plays music. I can watch TV on it. I can listen to online radio on it. I can surf the web and check my e-mail (both home and work accounts!). At the touch of a button I can see what the weather is like in Springboro, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Iowa, Detroit! I can even see the weather radar! It has GPS, so it can take me from here to wherever I want to go, no questions asked!! I'm FREE! Well, it probably asks me to confirm where I want to go, but no matter. About the only thing is doesn't do is the dishes!

Oh wait, I just didn't have that function turned on.

Anyway, it's amazing, and I feel amazing carrying it. No antenna to whip up anymore....and no snickers. Just looks of awe from my fellow gadget gurus.