Grandma and the Game Boy

It is has come to my attention that I am just not hip – at least through the eyes of a five-year-old.

Recently, Youngest Daughter and I were enroute to Port Lavaca from the Dallas area with my grandson in tow. As many might know, the trip itself is long and rather boring. It is especially long and boring for a child, although I must say that Grandson was definitely making the best of the trip, having brought along many forms of entertainment for the ride.

He started off playing with an Etch A Sketch® type thing making nice pictures of both his aunt and grandmother. From there he moved along and watched a movie in a portable DVD player. Remember the days of playing “I Spy” with children in the car?

By the time we hit Waco, we were one movie down and the sandman took over. The nap was short lived, however, as Waco was the planned location for dinner.

When we left Waco, Grandson, who is a very good traveler by the way, found new interest in the Etch A Sketch type thing before he moved on to other things.

Several miles down the road there came a little voice from the back seat, “Aunt Ash, will you help me get past this level?”

“Aunt Ash is driving right now,” Youngest Daughter replied. Smart answer.

“Grandma, can you help me get past this level?” was the next inquiry from the backseat as grandson thrust a foreign looking object into my hands.

Now mind you that by this time, it is dark. I am not wearing my reading glasses, nor have I ever seen the electronic object I now held in my hands.

All I could do was burst out laughing. Between the bouts of laughter, I managed to get out the words, “What is this?’

“It’s a Game Boy,” Youngest Daughter informed me. Boy, am I out of touch.

“Can you help me, Grandma?” Grandson inquired again.

More laughter on my part before I respond, “I’m sorry. I don’t think Grandma is going to be a whole lot of help. More laughter. Have you ever heard of Pong?”

“I think maybe you should just give it back,” came the bewildered reply. Smart boy. Just wait until the next trip when I will teach him the fine game of “I spy.”

So it’s official – I have been living in the dark ages. My kids today would just cringe if I pulled out Atari, the grandfather of today’s video games. I know that someone reading this will remember the one with the black and green screen with the little paddles. I can even jump into the next generation when my kids were younger. My kids might actually be surprised to find out about the many late nights when their mother and father stayed up late playing Mario or Dr. Mario on the family Nintendo.

Anything beyond that and I am completely toast.

I listen as coworkers talk of children and their Nintendo DS, Playstations, Gameboys and X Box. One co-worker was on cloud nine because she received a Wii for Christmas.

Me, I’m still stuck in the dark ages and definitely not hip. Just ask my grandson.