My grandma was here for dinner tonight, and she was watching me peel an orange for her. As I threw the peel into the sink, she said, "Oh honey, you should throw that in the garbage. It will clog up your sink." I told her that we have a garbage disposal now that would grind it up, and I demonstrated. She looked frightened and said, "Oh my! Your sink is plugged up good." I opened the cabinet under the sink and showed her the disposal and explained how it works (as much as I know, which isn't too much), but she was clearly not convinced. She said, "You shouldn't use that thing unless Mike is right here watching."
I remember when she called me at college and got my answering machine. It was the first answering machine I ever had, and like all of the ancient ones back then, it recorded on a tape. Grandma didn't know what it was. All she knew was that she heard my voice saying hello, but then I didn't talk to her after that. When I got home and pressed the button to play the message, she was already in mid-sentence. "...and I was just getting ready to do my dishes and thought I'd call you. How are your classes going?....Janel? Can you hear me? I heard a beeping noise on my phone....maybe there's something wrong with it...hello? I know you're there; I heard you say something when you first answered...hello?" She took up the whole tape, and by the end of her message she sounded pretty annoyed.
I wonder what new-fangled contraption my grandchildren will be explaining to me in a few years.
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