ONCE UPON AN ADDRESS BOOK

When mother died in 2002 one of the things I looked for was her address book. She had kept a fine set of addresses for many years and often, it lay on the table, especially during the holidays. It was not to be found; for some reason, she tossed it. Old Trunks wanted it because she wanted to write to the people in the book and tell them she had deceased. We relied on Christmas card envelopes to reach the people we would not have otherwise known about.

Address books evolve. I suppose there was one in the Anderson household in 1962, where else would we have gotten the information to send Christmas cards that year? We were after all, past the point where one could write the name and 'city' and expect the postal workers to know who was who.

Ella had one at the nursing home, which went home with her daughter. I am certain in read like a history in itself. Names continued to be added and there probably were dates of births and anniversaries for each name. Old Trunks is not certain of this but it does make sense, doesn't it?

The answer may be to always write in pencil and have the ability to erase when someone moved. Erase, until there may even be a hole in the paper, that is what my grand mother did.

Yet, we are in an electronic age where were may know more email addresses than we know physical addresses. This morning, someone sent me a new e-mail address, instead of keyboarding FMO, I am now keyboarding MOU. Do I need to remember this? Probably not, the computer takes care of it for me. Are all physical addresses and email addresses stored on the computer? Yes. Do I keep abreast with the big honkin' address book, mostly. Do I keep the address book in my purse up to date? Yes. Although it is not likely I will pick up post cards at a out of town market and send a card, I do have addresses and stamps. Why? Because it is a throw back in time to when post cards were always sent to family when one was on vacation.

Old Trunks is posting about address books today because I have been updating. In the course of just a couple of months, we have numerous changes. The only document, which is posted on the fridge, which is updated at each change, is a computer generated list of family members including our children and brothers and sisters. It is the master list of all.

Beyond up dating the master list and the physical address books, there is that other thing, the cell phone, which allows us, with one press of the button to call anyone within the phone. Change numbers, change email addresses, add numbers and addresses. It is the electronic age!

The land line phone rang last night, it was an old co-worker, he is moving to the east coast. He wanted to be sure I had his number. I looked this morning, indeed I did, from some time ago.

I looked at the numbers I had stored on the phone. Not many, perhaps 25 including things like Woodtick Theater and the motel in Thief River Falls. I am wondering how many my children have. According to the friendships listed on FACEBOOK, I am guessing 150 or greater. When I first got the phone, one of the clerks in the store was deleted people. By the time we had left, she had deleted more than 50. Random calls, we decided.

Old Trunks leaves you with this thought. How many phone and address lists do you have and how do you store them? Do you update? What if you lost your master cell list? What do you do then?

Who do you call? Not ghost busters.

A pleasant day to all.

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