500 Channels

For those much younger than I am, I make reference to "party line" in this poem. Well that is not what distinguishes donkeys from elephants in our election process. It was a cheap form of telephone service where several different houses were all on the same telephone line. I guess its sort of like facebook today. You'd never say anything you didn't want the world to know.

500 CHANNELS

My uncle, Thomas Ellingsworth
had a small Nebraska farm
and I would work there summer’s as a kid.
We plowed the fields with horses
and milked the cows by hand
and did the chores the way they always did.
He didn’t have a TV set
but had a radio
we’d listen to each morning, rain or shine.
At dinner his dear wife would tell
the latest ‘bout the neighbors.
Cause, their phone was on a party line.
After Uncle Tom retired
he still lived on the farm
but he made lots of changes,
don’t you know.
In a corner of the living room
was a wide screen TV set
where once there stood
that big old radio.
He hooked up to a satellite
but where they put the dish
really left him feelin’ quite unhappy.
They put it where the outhouse stood
and Uncle Tom was certain
that’s why the programs were so "gal darn crappy."

Jeff Hildebrandt, copyright 2007