The morning paper...why do I miss it so?

From the desk of Dan Price...

No morning paper in my driveway
 

It’s probably a senior citizen thing. After all that’s the world this old-timer lives in these days. There’s no morning paper at the door...or if us seniors are still lucky enough to have a driveway…well the driveway is void of such an item.

This old-timer is on social security and the daily paper is printed elsewhere and trucked to my town many, many hours after what used to be considered a normal deadline for newsworthy stuff. By the time I find the daily paper, it’ll cost me more than a half a tank of gas…well there I go, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but us seniors are known to do that from time to time.

If you’re an elderly person and still read my ramblings, you’’ll latch on to where I’m going with this…you’ll catch on to the point I’m trying to get across.

Sometimes we…us old people…have to raise our voices and overemphasize a little to get noticed. And…if we happen to find a paper we may wander over to a park bench and take a nap halfway through a story on how to hit the weights, exercise more…or run a 10-miler. Of course, the article is tailored to a 25-year-old and the ad next to the article is on how to get that special energy drink cheap at the closest nutrition store.

It’s hard to find a senior section in the paper these days.

So, if you’re up on the times and spend your waning years on a computer, like me, or you may have a concerned relative who may have purchased a smart phone for you…well then, now you are off and running — after a month’s lessons from a grandson or a granddaughter, that is.

Soon you can discover what happened in the 19th inning of a major league baseball game that ended in the wee hours of the morning, but, more importantly the standings are up to date and if you are a sports nut, then your day will be complete.

My next concern: Does a young person even read anymore? Forget newspapers, where can I find a young person with a book in his or her hand, sipping on a root beer float, engrossed in a story and unable to put the book down? Until, that is, those words finally appear: the end.

Saw a cartoon the other day. A librarian was leaning over her desk, a young redheaded boy with his eyes wide open, was staring at a foreign object.

The librarian said: “Young man, instead of powering it up, you just turn the cover to get started and instead of using you thumb, you actually just use your fingertips and turn the pages.”