It was a normal Thursday evening with not a whole lot on the schedule. OK, I’ll revise that statement a bit. There is always something on the schedule to be done, but not a whole lot more was going to get accomplished, in fact we were looking forward to going out to supper with my cousin from Canada.

   As I always do, I was monitoring my phone calls. Don’t know about you, but it seems those darn SPAM calls seem to more prevalent between 5 PM and 7 PM. But a quick glance at my phone would reveal that my granddaughter, Addely, was calling. WOW! She had been gifted her older brother’s smart watch, and with it came the ability to make calls. “Hello Addely, what’s up?” Hey BePa, my Mom sent me to my room to clean it up before supper, and I want to tell you that cleaning my room is really boring, so I called you.

   Now as a grandparent I am always super happy to hear from any of the grandkids. We have 4; ages 13, 11, 7 and 5. The only grandkid without some type of modern communication device is the 5 year old. I can also say that they have received a cell phone, or smart watch, at much earlier ages as the years have gone by, but Addely tells me that “all of my friends have cell phones or smart watches” and I go along with that statement hook line and sinker and think, well why not? All common sense seems to exit when it comes to giving a young person a cell phone. A friend of mine said that she wanted her young kindergarten aged son to feel secure, so she gave him a cell phone for his 5th birthday.

   The caveat for my friend was that her 5 year old son quickly took on the habits of his older brother and sister who had cell phones. “They don’t talk to each other anymore, they text.” I had to laugh a bit when she went on to explain that she was in need of the bathroom. Her 5 year old had taken up temporary residence inside and she was continually pounding on the door to get in…and was not receiving any answer. When the bathroom door finally did open and the 5 year old came out, my friend confronted her youngster as to why he hadn’t answered her when she was pounding on the door. The answer for this now technically empowered child…”well, I sent you a text! You should have seen that I needed 5 minutes.”

   Back to Addely…who was multi-tasking. Cleaning her room and talking grandpa and grandma. Soon we could hear our daughter in law informing Addely that soon it would be supper time, and she needed to have her room cleaned before supper. Even though we suggested that she could hang up and give full attention to cleaning her room, Addely informed us that she was making progress and she only had 10 more minutes of battery life anyway. How quickly they become experts of their domains.

   A little later I was thinking about the phone call we received. We could have thought that Addely called us because we were less boring than cleaning her room? Of maybe of all the contacts on her phone, her grandparents would certainly go along with a conversation that was better than cleaning her room? Or, like we finally decided, it really didn’t matter why Addely called us, we appreciated the fact that she called us instead of one of her friends, and when time ran out, we encouraged her to call anytime. Sometime down the road when Addely is a bit older we will remind her that we always appreciate her calling her grandparents because “we are not as boring as cleaning my room.”

City Band Takes The Stage

   The Minot City Band was on stage in Oak Park yesterday to begin our 104th consecutive season. Normally on a Sunday we play concerts at 4 PM and 7 PM. Yesterday our host organization, The Minot Area Council of the Arts brought in 2 food trucks, a featured artist, and The Scoop, an ice cream truck.

   The City Band will be in concert this Sunday at 4 & 7 PM. Our director is David Rolandson, director of bands at Minot State University. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy an hour of great music by the Minot City Band.

Events You Won’t Want To Miss

   Watch for information on exciting events at the Roosevelt Park Zoo, including the opening of the all new African Plains Exhibit (new giraffe building), and the coming out party for the 4 little tiger cubs born at the zoo last month. Bryleigh McBride will be covering these stories, so stay tuned to the Northern Sentry.

This Week’s Chuckle

   In every sport you’re allowed to fail occasionally. Unless its skydiving.