My Mom has been staying with me for the last week or so because my husband is out-of-town. Tonight over our nightly cup of tea (yes I know that makes me sound about 100 years old, whatever I like tea), I looked at her and said, “Mom, what did you do before google?” She smiled and asked what made me ask such a thing? Here is what I explained to her.
I’ve been working on cleaning out a spot in our yard, I had gone as far as I could without cutting down a bunch of tall grass and weeds. So, I went to the shop and pulled out our Weed Whacker. Now, I’ve used them before, not much , but enough to get it started. For the record, my sons were very impressed when it started on the 4th pull. I had reclaimed a solid 7 square feet when I ran out of string.
Well crap. I don’t know how to re-string a Weed-whacker! I always just brought it to my man, with a smile, and he took care of it for me.
I knew my mom didn’t know how, so my options were to give up on my project or figure it out. Now, I’m not one for giving up easily on projects, so I was determined to figure it out. I looked the Weed Whacker over pretty good first to see if there was some kind of idiot proof diagram. No such luck, so I did what any self-respecting woman with a mission would do, and I pulled out my phone and watched YouTube videos on how to re-string a Weed Whacker until I figured it out.
I’m sure I was a sight to see, sitting in my driveway covered in dirt and all other forms of yard nasty with the Weed Whacker across my lap, and my pretty little pink iPhone in my hand. Not to mention a child sitting on either side of me with a Popsicle.
So my question remains, what did my mother’s generation do? Did they just try to figure it out? Trial and error? Did they just not do things they didn’t have the skill set for? I honestly don’t know, and my mom just smiled at me and said “I’m not sure.”
