Thursday, March 29, 2012

H.E. meets The Wall

Engagement picture 3My mother turned 88 today.  That and a couple of other things got me to thinking about how much has changed in her lifetime.  Just this week, she’s learned at least two new things.

The first call came a couple of days ago.

“Chris (the washing machine repairman) says I need a new washing machine, and Tommy (my brother) said to call you.”

She went on to tell me that Chris told her that Hardwick’s (probably the only place in Camden, Arkansas, that sells appliances) carried Maytag, her current brand, and a new brand that he said was good but cheaper.  I asked her what this new brand was.  She didn’t know.  I told her I couldn’t help her until she found out, so yesterday she made a trip to Hardwick’s.

Turns out that the new brand was something called Crosley.  I’ve never heard of it.  She said it was $50 less than the comparable Maytag.  I told her for $50 to just buy the Maytag.  That was fine, but she was going to have to use some different kind of detergent.  I asked her what kind.  She didn’t know, but the saleswoman at Hardwick’s said she could get it at WalMart.

I asked her if H.E. sounded familiar.

“I believe she did say something about H.E.”

I explained that H.E. stands for “high efficiency” and that Tide makes an H.E. detergent; I use it all the time.  I tried to tell her what the H.E. symbol looked like, but finally gave up and emailed her a picture.

The second call came yesterday afternoon.

“I was looking at my email to see if you had sent that picture and there were all of these emails from Facebook.”

My Uncle Bill, her youngest brother, was in town visiting her last week and set her up a Facebook account.

“One of them said that Ken Kisamore has posted on my Wall.  What’s my Wall?”

It’s good to know that you’re never too old to learn something new.  Happy Birthday, Mother.

7 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

KBeau - - - long time no hear from you and this little post was just a jewel to make up for lost time.

I laughed right out loud about the facebook "what's a wall" question.

I do know what facebook is, but don't enjoy it so don't use it.

Here's a high five to your mom for embarking into the wilds of cyberspace in her 88th year!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Happy Birthday to your Mother. I think it's great that she does email. My dad will be 89 in June.
I just visited him in Florida recently and I told him that his generation has seen it all! We have all seen changes but they have seen some of the biggest. Hope she has a nice day.

Unknown said...

Tell her Happy Birthday, many more!

Mr. Crosley was a tinkerer and inventor. He invented an automobile in the early 1900's, sold that, and started various enterprises until his young son (in the 20's) wanted a radio. Crosley built him one, decided he could sell them. They were very popular and you can find collectible ones on ebay right now.

Having had so much success with radios, he branched out into appliances; it was his idea to put a shelf in the door (had the patent), and that model was called the "Shelvador" (I vaguely remember that).

He made so much money off the radios and appliances that he bought a radio station and a little baseball team called the Cincinnati Reds. He was so busy playing with the baseball team and the radio (later television) stations that he sold the radio and appliance business to a big conglomerate and quit the business.

I have seen some Crosley stuff surfacing lately (new) and your post made me look the company up; it's some investors/distributors in North Carolina who bought the original name off the conglomerate and are turning out audio equipment and appliances.

So there! Now YOU'VE learned something today!

(I knew about the cars and the old radios, but not about the Reds--should have, they played at CROSLEY FIELD for years...).

Mid-Atlantic Martha said...

How wonderful that your mother is still in there keeping up in her own sweet way. Hope you get to enjoy her special day, each day gets more precious when they get to this point. My dad will be 87 on Sunday.

nanny said...

Oh my....bless her heart.

I hope she doesn't end up with a front loader that tends to have an awful odor....... If she does tell her to leave the door open all the time when not in use!!

I don't do FB........and I hope no one sets me up with an account!! ha

Joyce said...

My mother in law just got on facebook. She's a bundle of energy still and definitely seems younger than her 76 years!

Keetha Broyles said...


Missing you in blogland, KBeau! Are you OK?