COMMUNICATION:

I AM EXCITED AND CHALLENGED BY A LITTLE WHITE& BLUE OBJECT, one and 3/4th inches by4 inches in size. It is so very light, maybe 12 ounces yet it has changed the world of Communication. The joke around the world is that so many of the earth’s people are using them that babies will be born with their hand grasping one ear in the next generation ...Millions of them are in use in most of earth’s countries. The miracle is that almost instantaneous contact can be made with any other person on the Planet or in the” skies of the far blue yonder”.

The new word is “cell Phone”...My family gave one to my wife, of almost 85 years, when she was dying of Cancer in the Hospital. It was programmed for 18 of her friends in the States of Washington, Colorado and California ...Day by day she had heart to heart conversations ,not only with our children and grandchildren, but the scores of friends in Churches we have served in these States.

I first saw a telephone hanging on the wall of my Uncle Melvin in Russellville, Mo. Bertha, my cousin, who kissed me and gave me measles ...showed me how to ring the neighbors, who were also related to us, by turning a little black handle on the side of a walnut two foot box... I ring two-longs & one short...All the farm houses were connected by wires strung from telephone poles fore the whole Cole County. There was no privacy, but community was built and gossip was very prevalent. Nothing was secret. Neighbors along the line listened in to the conversations....In this same house my cousin Virgil allowed me to listen to his cigar-box crystal radio...when Lindbergh landed in France, in the “Lone Eagle” conquest of flying the Atlantic.

As a nine year old living in Oklahoma City, I made my own telephone from my house on a little hill at 610 B street to 613 across the street, Gail Scarber and I candle- waxed a string a little over 100 feet long and put a tin can with a nail hole in the bottom, with string knotted and tied inside the bottom, which became our Mouth speaker and ear receiver. We took turns talking while the other one listened on the amazing string. There were very few cars and mostly horses and buggies that passed our home, and our line was well over their heads...The sounds of the shoed horses I shall always remember, because my uncle Jasper, was the Capitol Hill blacksmith. I was fascinated in watching him hammer metal shoes on the horses by holding their feet, one at a time .in his black heavy Apron,& with special nails, driving the nails into the horses hoofs., I mention this ,because the noise of the horses passing by our houses disturbed us like the airplanes passing over our homes today..

As a Boy Scout, there was the excitement of memorizing the Morse code...& communicating from one end of the Scout room in the Church ,to the other end, powered with batteries that had recently been invented...

Telegrams were exciting to read, as they were transmitted over the telephone lines. Our first Atwater-Kent radio, a large black battery , on the floor beneath it; had 4 knobs on the console to turn to KFI and later KHJ; in Los Angeles. Then Motion Pictures, & Television. Then color that communicated even more of reality to us.

Truly I have lived in an interesting and exhilarating time...Nine years ago our Family of four grown children dragged Carol and Me into the Commuter Age with a used Microsoft invention that has captivated and rearranged our lives in amazing ways..

For nine years we have touched the world as well as our Family almost weekly .Carol had our own Fax number....Grandson John, put us into our own Website ...Our great grandchildren soon after birth were given their Websites ,..so we could see their growth & even hear some of their voices as they greeted us from the States in which they live.

And now this: Cell phones with even pictures....Though my world of Terror and, Hate is a small neighborhood...It has a long way to go to become a brotherhood. The weight of my small adjusting, investing life will count in the new ways of communicating the love and patience of the Unbegun Beginning and Sustainer of all life. God & his Patience and love for this unique Planet.

Truly I have lived in an interesting, exhilarating time...1912...till now...