Growing Versions

Mail boxes affixed to gates and front doors are soon to become quaint relics.  Hand delivered mail will be the thing of legend. How did the mail get in the box Mama?  How did the letters arrive? They were delivered by hand, my darling.

Just like every other major holiday or special day (not sure about St. Patrick's day), we've been negotiating how much practise is really required before Easter arrives. Still a month away, all the available information available on what comes next? has been coming from the store displays that have handily convinced my son that it will happen any minute.  The pastel foil eggs and bunny paraphernalia have put my youngest into panic induced Easter trials all week. We have to be ready. We cannot be ill-equipped. I caved and permitted a "practice" easter egg hunt (marbles and peppermints) on the weekend.  One's hunting skills need to be up to date, I suppose.

In a post-coin operated world, it is getting trickier and trickier to deal in cash.  As we all know, transactions without cash have a cost, an actual fee for moving the virtual money around, and the costs we incur by being more oblivious about the actual amount of our money (or the bank's money) we're shifting around.  However, I have also started to wonder how a cashless society is understood by my kids. Recently, we had a fun time playing with friends in a river that necessitated a trip to the laundromat to dry out our shoes.  The coin slot happily took our money, even though it didn't always reciprocate by actually starting when we pressed the button. I couldn't help but think that it was rare moment of my kids observing and participating in a coin transaction. Their experience with payphones is limited and they have only occasionally seen me use one. My daughter asked me if I knew what penny candy was.  She told me she was studying it in social studies. ...