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Carver Communications - Index

Carver Communications - 11.1.08 - Index

By Cathey Meyer
And So Life Goes On!
The great political debate of 2008 is
over, but not really. We will continue to
struggle through difficult economic times;
we will continue to watch our life savings
dwindle into starter accounts of 1973; we
will wait with baited breath to see if the terror
alert changes like a mood ring; we will
continue to remove our footwear and
reduce our flying liquids as we enter airport
terminals; we will wish for gasoline
prices from the good old days of 2007 and
we will all get a year older and wonder
what happened to the life we had planned.
As of November 4, change has happened,
but in all fairness, it would have happened
anyway.
If you are attempting to follow a
train of undeveloped thought, you may
assume I am speaking of political leadership
where our #2 dude is either a dudette
or a guy with hair plugs. (I have yet to read
the paper, so I am not sure what kind of
change is leading the country as of today.)
However, I am referring to a bigger picture
of change: I am now one year shy of 50
and entering the holiday shopping season
for the ever-expanding-clan of Meyerrelated-relatives
who will not qualify for
social security for another five or six
decades. Given my lack of technology updating,
the youngsters anticipating cool
gifts for the holidays from cool Aunt
Cathey may wish for a lump of coal in their
stocking—at least the price of coal seems
to be going up.
As I begin my initial browsing for
age-appropriate gifts, I realize how much I
miss the good ol’ days of playtime: Using
the pointy end of the Tinker Toy to stab my
brother when he knocked over my Leggo
tower; Chewing on the Lincoln Logs
because the wood was so tasty; Placing the
metal Monopoly pieces next to the space
heater and then pressing them on our forearm
to make a tattoo; Inserting a really
high voltage light bulb in the Easy Bake
Oven and watching it explode sending the
gooey dough all over the garage; Taking
the arms and legs off of GI Joe and reinserting
them on Barbie. Yes, I learned a lot
November 1, 2008 REAL ESTATE NEWSLINE 7
from my playtime in the old days.
Today the kiddies want things for
which I have no visual concept: Webkinz,
Bratz, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Duplo
Legos, Guitar Hero and other items whose
label does not reflect any motivation to get
somewhat active while actually playing a
game. If I did not know better, I would
think we have entered the world of virtual
reality and all playtime events are done
through mental telepathy. The first time I
heard the term “Wii,” my nephew was asking
to play. I took him outside, put him on
the swing and yelled, “Wheeeeeeeee!”
Twelve-year-olds are not much fun on a
swing set and for my money, even less fun
with an imaginary tennis racquet. My
eight-year-old niece wanted to play
BRATZ. Since swinging was out, I
thought playing with dolls might be fun.
However, one does not ‘play’ with BRATZ,
one only looks at the overly made-up, glitterized
anorexic miniature hookers and
dreams of dressing like that one day.
A recent visit from my young
cousins allowed me the opportunity to
expose the youngins to playtime the old
fashion way, or at least how we ‘played’ in
the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. I dug out my old Etch-
A-Sketch to play with but it was promptly
removed from my possession by an overprotective-panicked
mother (my cousin)
who shamed me for exposing a potential
mercury threat to her young children. Just
because I shattered one on her head in
1967 and lowered her IQ a few points, her
children cannot experience the joy of creating
bad art on a magic window. Next, I
whipped out my Twister games for a little
body bending action to show off how yoga
has allowed me to touch my toes again, but
that was immediately removed as the rubber/vinyl
had toxic fumes that could affect
the children’s vision.
Just for the heck of it, I suggested
we all go outside for a little hide-n-seek,
but that too is now band as the pesticides in
the lawn are unhealthy for children and
frolicking outside might trigger an asthma
attack, too many dangerous places are lurking
about for children to get stuck in and
back in 1969, we did not bother to find a
sibling while playing and left her behind
while we went for ice cream. Come to
think of it, we never did locate that missing
sibling.
In an effort to update myself on
current pop culture ‘toys’, I attempted to
have a conversation with the little ones but
was totally ignored while they did something
called texting with their thumbs. I
am not sure if that is a game or just an
avoidance technique not to communicate
with anyone over 20. Apparently, I have
been Wiied Out as a cool relative. In these
tough economic times, that is just fine with
me. I just checked the price of coal and
cannot afford the lumps, so this year the little
ones will have to make do with my
newest gift idea: a book. I plan to re-gift
all the wonderful books I have received as
gifts but have yet to read. I may not be
cool, but at least I’ll be green X2—1. I am
recycling and 2. I’ll spend no extra money
on gifts for a generation that doesn’t know
the joy of designing your own Mr. Potato
Head.