Dear Santa Blogs
I have always appreciated your advice on giving pre-owned objects as gifts, but as years go by, i find the wish lists of my grandchildren very difficult to translate. One grandchild in particular gives me a lot of instructions which are awfully technical. Are second-hand postcards at all appropriate for such an up-to-date kid?
BARELY KEEPING UP
Dear Bear Up:
This is a time for reflecting on the past and the future, and we can all get caught up in depressing considerations about what is gone and what may be coming up. But this is also a time for remembering that some things are perennial, and always relevant, like snowflakes, safety pins, and old jokes.
You see, Bare, old jokes are like leaves: they blossom, give shade, wither, and disappear, But every old joke finds its way to come back in a new but recognizable form. And jokes on old postcards can be as relevant today as they were when first published (if we do it right.) For example, what could be more current than a phone with multiple uses?
And, believe it or else, even in 1905, there were jokes about people in danger from drones. What says 2024 better?
For the social media addict (and what else have we got nowadays?) we can show examples of musical cat videos from days of yore.
Along with motivational quotations (taken from some other source and misquoted).
In days long past, we had people who were willing to bring to our attention badly worded signs in public places,
Right next to personals ads on dating websites (though the word “website” did not exist, the idea of a web behind such ads was surely already present),
Mixed in with highly entertaining trivia of dubious verisimilitude and source.
Behold, Bear: if we keep looking, we can even find people whining about their printers. So take heart and go boldly forth with that Christmas list, Grandpa! Do not waste your money and your grandchild’s time with some high tech wonder which will be obsolete by Groundhog’s Day but fill that stocking with these glimpses of our past, proving that social media was as living and vibrant and annoying as it is today. They’ll always remember your gift. (I do hope you live more than a snowball’s throw away.)
Blogsy Babbles 