The value of friendships

Had a wonderful conversation with good friend Pat Black the other day.  Of course, we hark back to “the good old days” as well as all the tidbits that get in the news.
We were discussing the discussions school boards and educators are having, about what they can do about students and the overuse of cell phones in the classroom.
Both of us agreed that a simple solution is to ban them in the school room. Why do teenagers need them in the classroom setting?  Any message from home, any excuse for a doctor/dental appointment, must come from the main office first; that is where permission is given, not from a parent on a cell phone.
Pat (who graduated from Meeteetse High School) said students who drove to school had to take their car keys up to the superintendent’s office, give them to him, and he hung them on hooks. He could look out his front window and see the cars, turn around and see the cars. Pat said no student or parent ever questioned the rule. It just was. Period.
Joni said when she was teaching, in both Powell and Big Piney, cell phones were a no-no in her classroom. There were consequences involved, and in all her years of teaching, just one student (and a very good, intelligent one) had her phone confiscated. Students might not have liked the rule; parents might not have liked the rule; but it was the rule. As simple as that.
Life seems to be much simpler. Rules might be questioned, but as far as I know, there has been no major upheaval or boycott because students don’t like that particular rule.
And I wish there was some civility to our election ads and rallies and speeches. And I wish we had we had fact checkers checking the fact checkers who say they are fact checking the candidates. And do fact-checkers get paid? That might need to be fact-checked, also.
Election day can’t come soon enough to suit me.
And they can quit any cussing or swear words.
I always thought the old saying that Thumper’s mother gave him: “If you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all,” should be the ultimate rule for all candidates. Think of the silence we would have. Wonderful.
But getting back to my conversation with friend Pat. She and Jess had two kids, Sindy and Greg, but they have 17, yup, SEVENTEEN grandchildren, that includes three sets of twins.
It was a great conversation, and we always hate to break the connection. That’s what friendships are.