savannah storytelling

Bess in the city

I’ve always loved New York City, its energy, its frenetic pace, and its arrogance.  I love to watch New Yorkers hurrying down the sidewalks, careful not to make eye contact, the shoppers with bags from trendy stores I have only read about. The streets are filled with the color yellow as cabs fly up and down the avenues and skid around street corners.  I love to look at the theater marquees, the ads on the buildings at Times Square, and gawk with all the other tourists at the street performers such as the Naked Cowboy and Spider Man.

            There was a time in my teen years when I imagined living in New York City.  I would be twenty something, live in a loft in the Village, and work for a publisher or a newspaper.  I would have a group of Bohemian friends that would wear only black and sit in coffee houses at night reading poetry.  I would meet and fall in love with a handsome, brooding artist.  Oh well, that didn’t happen.

             I did go to New York recently to visit my cousin, Della, who lives in Northport, Long Island. We went to ‘the city’ and saw the play “ 9-5” at the Marquis Theater.  Our seats were on the front row and we could see the actors close and personal as they sang and emoted.  The play was much funnier than the movie.  We had lunch at a French restaurant, La Rivage, on restaurant row between 8^th and 9^th Avenue.  It was a Wednesday when the theaters have matinee performances and the streets were especially crowded.  From above, I imagined that we looked like a bunch of insects, scampering here and there as we fought our way back to Pennsylvania Station to take the train back to Long Island. Read full article »

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Mr. Bell’s Invention

Alexander Graham Bell was awarded a patent for the telephone in 1876.  Somewhere deep in his genius mind, he must have wondered if the telephone was a mistake, because according to Wikipedia.com, he later considered his famous invention an intrusion and refused to have a telephone in his study.  I wonder what he would think of his little invention today.

Remember the party line telephone, when we shared a line with someone else?  It worked fine; no one received many calls back then.  An operator answered the telephone and we would give her the number we wanted.  We finally got a private line, and then came the black rotary telephone.  Most families had only one instrument and it sat in the hall on a little doily covered table. Now, I live in five rooms and have five telephones, plus my cell.

Next came the push button phone with cordless and cell phones coming close behind.  With the advent of the cell, personal communication exploded.  Now, there is no end to what can be done with a phone.  We can send e-mail, listen to music, watch DVD, record our voice, take pictures, play games, and text. At least half a dozen new ways to use a phone are probably being developed as I write this article.

The important question is this?  Has the telephone improved our quality of life? Of course it has.  I only have to think of how much safer I feel having my cell phone when I am out at night by myself.  However, it has brought some frustrations.  Maybe we can’t blame it on the telephone itself, but on the people who design telephone systems.

If you’ve ever made a doctor’s appointment or conducted business over the phone, you will identify with the following scenarios: Read full article »

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