Well, another one bites the dust … sigh. I got a message from the Atlanta Journal Constitution that said I would no longer be getting an actual paper any day of the week but would continue to get a Sunday edition. I enjoyed my last weekly AJC last Saturday, and was glad to find one on the ramp Sunday morning. But, no more arrived starting Monday. I went online to the e-edition they sent me and it was fairly easy to page through, but still the articles are WAY too long! I was glad to read the comics, but haven’t figured out how to work the crossword, yet. In the paper ones I was used to solving, they start out very easy on Monday but by the time the Friday puzzle arrives, I have to look up so many of the answers and then usually go to their online puzzle answer sheet. I just grew up grabbing that morning joy out of the driveway, reading the comics, and we had to wait for our Dad to finish off his pages before we could read the news. Later on, during a visit to Tybee Island, I learned the AJC was no longer delivered in that part of South Georgia. Another sigh for me. I have been VERY blessed to have a wonderful delivery lady who started laying them on the ramp for me after my issues with a broken hip. For several months she brought them to the top of the ramp for me! (I wonder what the AJC has done for their full time delivery drivers?)

I still remember the time my brother Charles broke his leg while he delivered those papers back in the fifties. I think I’ve mentioned that our doctor had to send him over to the dentist’s office for an x-ray as there was no hospital in Jackson and the doctor didn’t have that medical tool himself. As he was an early teen, I’m sure there was no insurance connected to his morning job and we never had medical insurance growing up.

I was trying to get adjusted to this new way of reading the paper, and then my internet and home phone went down the second day! I called Spectrum and finally got connected to a kind lady who said she could have a technician out here by Friday! What? That was Tuesday, but thankfully she called me back to let me know she was putting me on a list for more rapid help to arrive. Sure enough, a kind lady arrived Wednesday just as I was getting back from my weekly adjustment. I am so glad to be able to use my laptop again, and of course have a home phone line back up too. This was the first time I’d seen a lady technician! She was just as capable as the usual gentlemen they’ve sent out in the past. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to have that neat connection too. (Interesting chatting with them on my flip cellphone.) I sort of still prefer my land line though.

More things about to end for me too. My cellphone company sent me an upgraded phone as the networks are all upgrading by the end of this year. I opened the box, but haven’t unwrapped the new item. I think I’ll wait for one of my tech-savvy grandkids to come by and get me set up for the new phone of the future.

I was SO relieved the next Sunday morning to find an actual paper in my driveway again! I read most of the articles, then got out the crossword puzzles and put the answers off to the side. I enjoyed my morning AJC again. I wish they would shorten their articles and I did send one of the editors that important clue. I wonder what is next?

Beverly Wittler has four children, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She lives in McDonough.