SearchYou don’t see a lot of notes anymore, the cell phone has taken over from them. Once they played a vital part in the organization of our lives; the temporary absence of one’s mother from the home was almost always covered by a note, usually left on the kitchen table.
These were invariably observed with some trepidation. Apart from revealing the mother’s whereabouts they would almost certainly contain instructions that clashed with plans already made for those golden hours that lay between school ending for the day and dinner.
Wood would have to be cut, vegetables peeled or lawns mowed, with the implied threat that it would be a good idea if these tasks were completed before one’s father returned home.
Although they seldom contained good news, it was sometimes mixed with the bad. Homework had to be completed before six o’clock, but the family would then depart for an outing. Sometimes a visit to the new drive-in movie theatre.
Notes served other purposes. They were a means of communication in class for news that could not wait until the end of the lesson. The more observant teachers would detect these transfers and they would be confiscated. The worst possible scenario was that they would be read aloud to the class causing considerable mirth if they expressed youthful lust for another student who was unaware of this passion or, worse, depicted the school football hero as some sort of Neanderthal. Serious injuries could then occur after school.
The popularity of notes underwent a revival with the invention of the Sticky Pad. Notes could be written and then stuck on convenient places like on fridge doors or telephones but as more and more people acquired a cell phone they too fell from fashion.
The note is reemerging in our house however. I constantly have to write notes to myself to remind myself what to do. Ideas have to be written down or disappear for ever and lists have to made for impending trips or even a visit to the shops.
Unfortunately most of the other relics of my childhood years still remain in the past.
© Julian. All rights reserved by the author.
Print Article
Send to a friend
Save as PDF