I want to Live in Mayberry

I want to live in Mayberry. I want to live in a place where people still swap howdies on the street. Still congregate at the local cafe. Where everybody is in Church on  Sunday. Where people sit out on their porch in the evening.

I want to live in a place where there are no iphones.Yes you heard me right. I am sick to death of phones. I have a phone.I have an iphone..but only because it was given to me by my child that got a newer version. And I admit it is a handy device. I like keeping in touch with my kids. I like being able to call home, or call hubby when I have a problem. But I am tired of being constantly "on call". That is the way it seems, you have to constantly be monitoring it. Leave it alone for a few hours and the darn thing beeps and squawks at you till you make/clear off missed calls, missed emails, missed text messages etc. And the horror of it all if you go somewhere and forget its "life support charger"!

How did this happen? How did we get to the point that people can't even carry on a conversation anymore face to face? How did we get to the point where even at Church we are interrupted by dings, whistles, annoying sounds and the like? How did we get to the point to where you walk into a restaurant and people are sitting at tables heads bent over a glowing piece of plastic in their hands interacting with "social" media instead of interacting with the person sitting across from them?
Picture this Aunt Bea, Andy, Helen, Opie all sitting on the porch in the evening. Andy is strumming his guitar. Aunt Bea is just rocking, relaxing after a hard day of cleaning and cooking. Helen is sitting by Andy just content to be there. Opie is sitting on the step, listening, not only to the music but to the grownups talk, spending time with his family. And they are listening to him. They are interacting with each other! They are being "social"! They speak and wave to the neighbors as they walk by and occasionally someone stops to swap howdies. Sometimes Barny just drops over to visit on the porch and he is welcomed. No iphones...nothing plugged into their heads..no computer in their lap..no TV the size of a wall blaring in the background. Doesn't that just sound perfectly lovely?

When I was a kid we had three stations. The news was on early morning, then national news at 5:30 and local news and weather at 10...so you would know how to dress the next day. We had a landline phone and a party line. we didn't make long distance calls unless there was a real need. We had a radio in the kitchen, and a record player that sat on a table. People sometimes  dropped by to visit. People don't do that anymore. And if they did everyone would just sit around on their phones anyway.

These things seem to rule our life. We have become their slaves. Updating to the newest and best. the baby may not have diapers at home but by golly we have the newest version of......whatever you have. They keep us tethered to the wall or port or whatever you use to charge the thing...  keeping it alive. Heaven forbid if we come to a place where there is...gasp!...."noService"! Then we walk around holding it in the air praying that the powers of the air that be will have mercy and just give us one bar! Just one bar pleaseeeeeeeee..........

I read an article the other day that said Americans are the most drugged up nation in the world. We have the most stress...maybe Japan has us beat on that...but we are a stressed out, anxiety riddled, depressed people. We take more prescription drugs for those conditions then any other county. Not to mention drugs that don't come from your local doctors office but out of a back alley somewhere.

I wonder what would happen if we just "pulled the plug"? Maybe life would become more like Mayberry again.

God Bless and Happy Trails
~RW~
Who is pulling to the plug this weekend...weaning calves at the ranch where there is.......wait for it.......NO SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!