Now and then I will think of a topic to blog about that will stop me in my tracks and have me write the stroke of genius down before it slips away. This was not one of those those thoughts but instead a variation that was something I never thought of before today and I knew I wouldn’t forget to post it.
After getting a message delivered to vocally today that should have been delivered by text message I got to thinking that kids today have it so easy with the fancy phones they carry. In an “old man” moment I thought back to way back when we had to pass notes around in school. We bitch about slow response times to messages today but anyone who dated someone they didn’t have a lot of classes with in high school should nodding in agreeance. Instead of having a brief conversation with someone you’d spend most of your day ignoring your classes, teachers and work to write down inane bullshit for your loved one to read. Then if you couldn’t hand it directly to that person you had a network of friends that acted as postal workers for you to get the message to where it was going. (I had that wonderful job for friends as times and that was often a thankless endeavor) After your message was passed along like a relay baton you had to play the waiting game and hope that the process would start again in reverse for you.
As if this ordeal wasn’t distracting enough from real learning I often had to spend additional time apologizing either by yet another letter or in person because a previous letter had been either too short or had poorly communicated something that upset a girlfriend. I trusted the “couriers” that helped me during high school but you never wanted to be too dirty or too expressive in these letter for fear of snooping. You also had to take into account that if you upset your girlfriend in one of these correspondences you had just made enemies with every courier that she had “working” for her. It was a real hassle but it was par for the course and had to be done if you wanted a girlfriend….and some action now and then.
I left high school with boxes of letters that I kept from numerous girlfriends. I had them up for years even after I had got married. I didn’t read them or get nostalgic about them. I really just had them because all during high school these scraps of paper helped to get me through grueling days at a place I would of done anything to escape from. I didn’t take many pictures during high school because back then we had to use film and film, as well as developing, cost money I didn’t have. For the big occasions I took pictures but for the daily grind these notes were the only way I had to hold onto some of the better times I encountered during those years.