When I was young my family would travel to my Grandparents house to visit for a week or two in the summer time. It was our “vacation”. Usually it was Mom’s parents we stayed with and at some point we would go visit with my Dad’s mom. My Grampa Skelton was dead by the time I came along. At any rate Mom and Dad spent the time visiting with everyone they could before it was time to go home.

Now nobody goes visiting even when they live close by. Now everyone visits on line and they are all able to visit together even while doing it at different times. While this is the acceptable way to visit nowadays, I guess, it’s just not the same. One misses the presence of the other person. The unique way that they move their hands and arms when they talk. There is no familiar smell of the other person. No essence of their presence. No watching their mouth make the sounds that emanate from it. Mouths are unique too, you know. No hint of how their eyebrows move or the translation of their words showing in their eyes. I miss those times.