Gran was a piece of work.  Everyday in the summer, I would go to her house and listen to "Ma Perkins" or "How the World Turns."  She would do her work, get dinner on and then turn the radio on.  The radio was our solo, entire, total connection to the outside world--other than the movies on Saturday--where everything was in black and white.  And I don't know that all the communication paraphernalia we have today has made the world a better place to live.

I'll make an exception for the GPS on my I-phone.  I would be lost without it.  We used to use maps.  Every car had a car-pocket full of all the maps of surrounding states.  And an atlas, at home, was always nearby.  Of course there were no instant reports of wrecks on the road and the roads were all two lane.    So if someone had a wreck and blocked the road, you were stuck.  We never traveled without a gallon thermos of ice water.  It wasn't until Eisenhower was elected that we got interstate highways.  I was fourteen when that happened so I have traveled on a lot of dirt and two lane roads.

Telephones were on the wall.  You had an operator who answered when you picked it up.  She connected you to the person you wanted to talk to.  Actually, you ended up talking to a crowd.  Everyone had party lines.  When the phone rang, you knew if it was for you by the number of rings.  And anyone on that line could pick up and listen--which they did.  No secrets in a small town.

Eventually we got our own number and a phone that sat on a table.  Three digit numbers.  No prefix.  Everyone who talked on a phone knew everyone else's number--nobody could afford to call out of state.  And if you did, you had to call the operator.   Zero.  She would look up your number and dial it for you.  The phone book for your area was your right hand friend.  I saved ours from 1956.  Once again, technology eliminated an entire era.

I said that Gran cooked dinner.  And the evening meal was supper.  I don't know when the word "lunch" emerged.  I think it was when they started serving meals at the school.  Up till then, you took your brown bag to school.  Later, when we were a little older, lunch-pails were invented for kids.  Men's lunch-pails were metal rectangles with a domed lid.  Ours were flat.  Someone made a fortune on comic lunch-pails.  I didn't have one.  Just a brown bag.