One Hundred Years

I have been reading a novel about a young 21^st century woman and her great-grandmother who sailed on the Titanic—and survived. She had known her great-grandmother as an elementary school ager before the lady died in her 80’s.

That made me think of my grandmother and how the year 1913 doesn’t seem all that far removed to me.  However,I would certainly think life strange if I were suddenly  transported by time travel back to that era. Maybe 1913 doesn’t seem foreign to me because the majority of my adult life was spent in the 20^th century. Plus, many beloved family figures that I knew well were either children or young adults at that time.

Anyway,back to my grandmother—she would have been 19 in 1913, nearly ready to embark on her 2^nd decade of life. Here is an invitation she kept from two years earlier to a Halloween Party. The illustration looks like it was done with colored pencil and the party was to run from 7 to 10 PM. Teenagers and their parties have changed in the last 100 years.  

In six years Grandmother would be married and prior to that, she  taught in a country schoolhouse. She could well have begun her teaching career in 1913; there’s no one left now to attest to the year she started. Back in those days a degree wasn’t necessary to teach. A teacher could teach during the regular school year and go to summer school at a Teacher’s College somewhere nearby.

During that decade she would have seen “the world war” begin the next year in 1914. Even the United States was embroiled in World War I ending in 1918. The war to end all the wars--too bad that statement didn't hold true. 

I’m far from being 19 in this year 2013, but it is interesting to think about what has happened in the years between 1913 and 2013. I have to say, I still think it’s strange to write the year’s date with 20 at the beginning. And I've been doing that for how long now?

Just a Sentence?

Recently, my sister-in-law gave me a four-disk DVD on writing sentences. When I looked at the package I thought, how can anyone prepare 24 lectures on writing a sentence? It turns out Professor Brooks Landon, can, and does it very well.

I don’t remember any specifics on grammar, punctuation or sentence construction since—maybe—junior high years. Maybe even earlier than that. English or composition classes in high school and college focused more on content. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn much more about building a sentence than I ever thought possible.

My generation started out learning of sentences in reading about Dick and Jane and “seeing Spot run.” Later on I learned about sentences needing a subject and predicate with some adverbs and adjectives sprinkled here and there. We were cautioned against incomplete sentences and run-on sentences and probably some other types I have conveniently forgotten.

I thought sentences ran the gamut from the short, but precise, “Jesus wept” to the Apostle. Paul’s long sentences in some of his Epistles in the New Testament, which you would swear ran at least half a chapter (that’s in English, not sure how those sentences read in Greek). Come to find out in Professor Landon’s course, that great cumulative sentences can run to 240 words or even more.

The references that Dr. Landon alluded to have piqued my interest, so I think I’ll be checking our local library or perhaps even springing for a purchase on Amazon. Unfortunately, however, I don’t look for my sentences to excite anyone with their greatness, but I also hope they don’t lull my readers to sleep.

Isolation

Last week my computer died.

It went to the computer fix-it shop and stayed for a week. During that time I experienced symptoms of weird withdrawal.

Now I don’t have time to play games on my computer. (I discovered this when I was given Scrabble software. I would open the file and tell myself I would only play 2-3 games. The next thing I knew, an hour plus had passed and I still had not accomplished the task I had set out to do in the first place! That would either be called Scrabble addiction or lack of self-discipline.)

I have owned a personal computer since the late 80’s but didn't have e-mail until the late 90’s or perhaps later. Then I became better acquainted with the internet’s Information Highway and the cords slowly drew tighter. A large percentage of my shopping is done by Internet since I am not a “shop till I drop” type and vision challenges have a negative bearing on real shopping.

The morning after I’d delivered my computer to the fix-it shop, the reality set in. I usually check my e-mail after breakfast to see if there’s a message needing an answer. No e-mail access!

That was the week I had planned to do some serious work on formatting “The Women Who Knew Him” for print/hard copy. No computer!

I was reminded that Easter comes early this year and I need to order boxes of Easter cards so I could prepare my annual letter to enclose in said cards. No internet access!

It really is strange to be out of contact with friends and acquaintances after being accustomed to not only e-mail but also FaceBook. I don’t have an I-phone or an I-pad so as limited social medially (did I just coin a new word?) as I am, I really started feeling isolated.

After a short “pity Patty party”, I decided I might as well redeem the time, so my Bible study homework got caught up and I started preliminary work for my next book.

In a week’s time I was once again connected with the “world” and dealing with the configuration (or something) of a new hard drive. I’m sure there is some great symbolism there, somewhere, but I don’t feel like exploring it at the moment!

This has been an interesting experience, somewhat akin to “fasting” from TV viewing for a week. For me, however, the lack of a computer was more difficult and proved that I’m not really a hermit at heart after all.