DAD WAS WONDERING why the internet was not working on his phone. " Is the wifi on ? " I said in between stuffing my face at the dinner table staring at my laptop. " No. " he said, " I turned it off."
" Why ? " I looked over at him as he looked over my shoulder.
" Ah well....because I don't want to use my data. Don't want you know all the charges." he looked at me with a determined face. I knew it was time to revisit what wifi is.
Dad grew up in a time where there were no computers, never mind wifi. My mom also grew up without computers but she was younger than him and had always seemed to good at math and problem-solving. I couldn't imagine what it was like to grow up back home in the Phils as we call it, where there was no Youtube, no facebook, no instagram, no smartphones. Just a new fangled box called a TV and of course, their version of a one-way internet- the transistor radio. Today, everyone there has cellphone either a dumbphone or a smart one. Even the poor have cellphones. When I brought home an old, second-hand computer for them one day their world suddenly became much smaller and at the same time, a new one opened for them. Both of them, especially Dad was fascinated at how he would post something on Facebook and unlike mail, would not have to wait a week or so for a response.
" Look ! Someone has already liked my comment ! " he yelled.
Perhaps that is one reason why even older folks are starting to like computers. They can be kids again. They can experience the joy of discovering new things. They thought they had forgotten all that and that an old dog could not learn new tricks. But sometimes the old dog (no offence, Dad) can be far more eager to learn than the young pup. As a retired college professor, perhaps Dad knew that eagerness to learn was as important as aptitude and he probably found it amusing to be the student again, peppering the teacher with questions everytime I showed up at my folks for a free meal served with a good deal of childhood nostalgia. God I loved being a kid. I'm sure he does too.
