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Christmas 2010 or "Norman Rockwell Meets Yoda"

In my final newsletter of the year, I often share stories about life in our small town in upstate New York. I was born and raised in suburban New Jersey, but I have come to deeply enjoy all that this life has to offer. In fact, I revel in it. I often tell people that I live in “a Norman Rockwell painting” and it really feels like that to me. Review a few of my past December newsletters and you get a picture of what life is like during the holidays around here.

But time does not stand still and neither have we. My four kids have all entered their teens now and the march of technology has swept over us all.

Now don’t get me wrong, Hornell is still the idyllic small town I have been writing about. We still have the Christmas Parade, Stevie still rides his bike past our house singing about our dogs, and I still get yelled at for not waving every time a friend or neighbor drives past (I’m from Jersey; we just didn’t do that). Having one of the kids’ teachers stop by to drop off a book they left in class is a normal occurrence. Veterans are honored, the High School Football team won its second state championship in as many years, the kids and pets are safe. All in all, life is good. But I’m still having some adjustment issues as we all “mash-up” into the digital world.

I promise I’m no stranger to technology, no Luddite. I fully embrace this never-ending stream of advances and innovations. Last January, I started the year by writing about how the times we live in have, in many ways, surpassed our science fiction fantasies of not-so-long ago. Except for flying cars and space colonies, much of what we use every day continues to roar past the limits of what we could ever imagine. Changes come so thick and fast that we just shrug, accept them, and move forward. Change is the new norm.

Of course my growing kids want to dive headfirst into these new technologies. However, we being cautious and careful parents, monitor their choices. Our first issue was cell phones, then came texting: yes, their mother told them, they would be required to produce their cell phones for immediate inspection whenever asked. But those phones now have internet capability and social websites like Facebook and have infiltrated my kids’ lives like so much electronic Kudzu. Afraid of being left behind, my wife and I dutifully signed on as well so we could keep an eye on what they were all up to. However, I must need a seatbelt or something; I cannot believe what kind of information people hang out there in space. And it is so…immediate.

One night, after playing a rollicking game of “Balderdash” with our kids and in-laws (a game where you guess the definition of obscure words), my wife and I casually went online to peruse what the kids had been up to, er…digitally. Not moments before, my 14-year-old daughter had posted on her Facebook wall: “Had sooo much fun tonight!!!!!!! ‘Sperple!!!’1 HAHAHA!!!” While I was glad she enjoyed the game, I was astonished that she had posted this so quickly. I mean, she must have been tapping her iPod while pulling on the pajamas!

How does this square with my “Norman Rockwell” theme? How do you paint this?
It truly seems like yesterday that we buzzed the store aisles, crayon-written Santa lists in hand, looking for bicycles, dolls, sleds and craft kits Now we receive their lists via e-mail, complete with hyperlinks to specific web sites for fancier cell phones, iPods and Kindles. Anyone see a theme here? How can the charm of living in such a wonderful small town compete with the technology of instant communication from anywhere in the world?

Well, Mr. Rockwell, meet Yoda - it turns out you can. The answer lies right where I thought the problem was. Sitting here scrolling down my kids’ Facebook walls I see that one is SO excited to be seeing the new Harry Potter movie this weekend, another is quoting one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett song lines in response to a friend’s post and, to a third, I remain as bumbling and lovingly clueless as ever: ‎ "what's a Justin Beiber??"- my dad :)

Regardless of whether it’s in the back yard, the school yard, or in the latest technological “digispace”, as long as my kids’ dialog speaks of love and laughter, our place in that Norman Rockwell painting remains secure. I continue to relish small town life and will do all that I can to maintain, ahem, “modern” communication with our kids.

My wife Beeb and I, and children Kealan, Caitlin, Aran and Liam wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a safe and restful New Year. I look forward to seeing you all in 2011, Frank C. Kilcoyne, CSSC.

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1 “Sperple” - to run off in different directions.