Communication from Canada

When a family immigrates to a different country they will often protect their family back in the home country by only telling the good things about the immigration.  Back in 1957 a person wrote home.  One didn’t call because long distance was exorbitant in cost.  In the very beginning not only didn’t my parents have a telephone but the family back home didn’t have one either.  So my mother would write letters on thin “air mail” paper and use air mail envelopes with the blue and red border.  I don’t know the price of stamps back then but you had to be frugal with how heavy the envelope was.

When my parents finally got a phone, and the family back home got a phone, we would have to make a special appointment with the operator to set up the overseas call.  It was a huge deal.  And then they had to time the call for about 10 minutes and try not to ask stupid questions like “how’s the weather” and “what did you have for dinner”.  It was very stressful and my parents were tense just making the call.  When it was all over they were not much wiser but satisfied that they had heard the voices of their family.

Today my mother has this special 10-10-7-10 number where she can call her sister for 99 cents and talk for 90 minutes.  The rest of us can use Facebook, Skype and otherwise contact the other side of the ocean in a few minutes.  The world has really changed in my own lifetime.  I often wonder what more we will see during our lifetime; inventions move faster than the speed of light.