Grandma Joins Facebook

I'm not very old.  Not by any real standards unless you're a kindergarten class and I am your substitute teacher.  So, for the most part, everyone I meet is older than me.  But the age gap is a wonderful thing. In this case, by gap I mean chasm, or fjord. I don’t actually know what a fjord is, but the internet says it is a steep valley carved by glaciers. Go figure. Anyways, the age gap is a big one.

Yesterday, my Grandmother celebrated her 82nd birthday, which makes her slightly older than me.  Four days ago, my Grandma celebrated another milestone: she joined Facebook.  Hiyoooo! Hold onto your hats folks at home, Grandma is taking the world by storm!!!

With the help of my Dad, my Grandma joined the internet, and when I called her on the phone to wish her a happy birthday we started talking about her new frontier. (She couldn’t remember what it was called, but we figured “Facebook” out eventually)

My Grandma has 9 children, 35 grandchildren, and even more great-children. Although large in number, many of these family members do not live near her. While we are all judicious about making phone calls and seeing her on vacation, there is still a distance.  Furthermore, she is a devout Christian, a retired school teacher, and she absolutely LOVES Scrabble. I believe she is the greatest influence on my love for the game.

While on the phone, she brought up that she joined Facebook specifically so she could play Scrabble with her family.  I thought this was absolutely beautiful, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as she described how difficult it was for her to figure out how to push the “buttons” (keys on a keyboard), and open the “board game” (Internet Explorer).  I’ve heard these kind of geriatric-tecnology-struggles stories from others, but I did not realize how real this problem could be.  I did not find it as a problem.  In fact, I found it quite adorable.  I had a chance to teach a game to the very woman who taught me.

Once the game started, I found humor in the generation gap and her technological handicap, but I was also reminded of why any Grandma really can be hilarious.  Beyond a simple skills advantage and vocabularic (sp?) superiority, my Grandma still retained the distinct advantage of simply being my grandmother.

When you play your Grandma in Scrabble, it tends to work out such that you can score a lot of points, but you’ll have to play a dirty word to do it, so you settle for something worth less points but more appropriate.  (Instead of “Dildos” for 55 points, I will play “Sold” for 10 points and retain my dignity) Of course, on your Gramma’s next turn she’ll play a word like “Fart” or “Ass” and then you’ll feel like an idiot.  So, it was only fitting that when my Grandma invited me to play a game with her online, her opening move was “Sexual” for 30 points.

With such an apt foray into the internet Grandma, you may be 82 years old, but you’re always welcome here.