Communication (c) 2013 Sharon Greenaway
As our daughter is currently in Europe traversing many countries on her own and then as part of a tour group it is with comparative ease we can keep in touch with her, despite some Internet hiccoughs.
Using a combination of social media Whatsapp and Facebook and phone calls via Skype has meant that for most of her 2 month trip we have been in touch. There was a short time when we did not hear anything and us and her friends were worried, but it was due to poor Internet coverage in the part of Europe that she was travelling. As soon as she was able she got in touch and set our minds at rest.
It is such a changed world when the young girl within me remembers the excitement her father exuded as he carefully unwrapped the parcel from overseas and then placed the enclosed tape into the audio tape machine. Slowly he thread the end of the tape through the machine and wound one end onto the empty reel.
Turning the machine on he, we…Mum, Dad and I heard the hesitant voices of relatives who until this time were simply faint, scratchy voices over a hurried telephone line.
This tape also seemed terribly rushed, as if the people who recorded their messages were afraid of this new fangled way of sending voices over the waters.
“Hello Nick, hello Elwyn, hello Sharon…it’s May here…’ Hesitation then someone else says the same thing and before long the tape message ends.
And yet the tape itself was never finished.
Sharon Greenaway 