Grandma in the digital world

I am the exact same age as Jane Fonda and Joan Baez. Jane, Joan and Molly- you can know our age cohort by our names. They could as well be Carol, Virginia, Kathy or Marie or Betty. Our grand daughters are Sheniqua, Beyonce, Taylor and Ashley.

You could tell our digital knowhow by our names! Today I received in the mail my new iphone. I was looking forward to having Siri as my personal assistant. So cool, this pristrine white phone. All potential.

But no, I am mired in the never never land of retrieving passwords that do or do not exist. So far away is Siri, not to be accessed by me (without some password I cannot retrieve)

I need the next generation to help me in this. When I was in the phone store the future seemed so easy. All you have to do is.. But there are the complicated internet issues. So I will take my laptop and phone to my daughter Elizabeth, not Ashley, and she will walk me through the set-up.

Today I went on a field trip with the garden club to visit a hydroponic fish and vegetable farm. I am one of the youngest members of this group of very old ladies and gents. They are so slow. We move as a group of folks with walkers and canes, some very fat and immobile, others as very old folks needing to check everything twice and more. I love these guys, make no mistake. They all have interesting stories to tell and they have such gardening knowledge! They love these field trips, a highlight of their lives. I am humbled by their game face when I know that so many of them are really hurting as they manage their walkers uphill and down.

They pay no attention to this and ask many questions of our tour guide and volunteer interesting information. No cell phones or messaging alerts sounded while we were on this tour.

Quite different from being with younger folks who are always fingering the cell phones, looking up stuff, sending texts.

I wonder how this new connectivity will play out. Here are these folks of great age I was with today. Most of them do not even email (so I will have to send them regular mail notification of the next garden club meeting at my house next month). They worry about how they will find my house (GPS? Google Maps?) No way. They want a hand drawn map of how to get here. And of course, I'll do it.

So, I am betwixt and between these worlds. I am still fearless, but clueless none the less. I need Sheniqua!