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My father (of the high seas, the Great Lakes) sent me these two pictures from a Sturgeon Bay, WI dry dock he was visiting yesterday. He was gazing at the stern of a 640′ freighter, as he is wont to do and as his job requires, when suddenly all the moisture in the air froze, causing momentary panic–”I thought I had something in both eyes”–until he realized what was going on. 
That’s the beauty of -12º F. Within thirty seconds, the air was clear again, and the next shot is the same stern five minutes later.
I love getting boat shots from my father, and I applaud any email interaction from my mother; my parents, like so many I know, were charmingly late to set about with “the email.” So it’s just plain cute to get emails from them, especially when I see they’ve mustered the exuberance necessary to fire off a couple forwards. I only get chain forwards from people related to me; it’s an acceptable familial tariff, and how else would I keep abreast of colloquial humor, pet fashion, and urban legends? I remember a time (antes de email & circa Christopher Pike’s Chain Letter 1 & 2) when I took the onus of chains as seriously as I took all my grade school friends’ sworn secrets (wasn’t discretion–or its semblance–the major prereq of young friendships?): I would not tell, and I would absolutely not break the chain. Now I blithely read them and move on with my life. Maybe I’m a cynic and no fun, but I just don’t do chain emails or chain myspace posts other chained correspondence. Ok maybe the caveat would be a missing child alert, but that’s about it. We’ve touch on chains before (including rehab resources), but do you have chain-addicts in your life, or are you an active or recovering chain-keeper?
Comments (9)
Comment
I don’t have a funny chain story, but your charming description of your parents and their email skills reminded me of mine…
My dad was absolutely inept when it came to email, he once tried to have me help him email someone from home. After 30 minutes to log on remotely to his work email, he goes to type in the email address, which the receipient had spelled out for him over the phone. The only problem? He had assumed my dad knew that “at” meant @, not a-t. Plus, my dad was VERY stubborn. About an hour later, the email got sent. And to “someone @ email-dot-com,” not “someoneatemail-dot-com.”
posted by Kelly J on 12-5-2007 at 3:19 pm
Can you make those pictures any bigger? I grew up in Sturgeon Bay and no one understands why I won’t go visit my family in the winter!
posted by Pepper on 12-5-2007 at 3:27 pm
My oldest sister is a horrible chain-proliferator. She forwards anything and everything to me and my other sister, and my mother; whether it be a schmaltzy “best friends forever” poem with tons of twinkling star graphics and a frightening clipart of a baby with an over-large head, or a “You’re Phone Will Ring After U Open THis!!” magic trick email. She even fills out all those “Getting to Know You” surveys, even though we, as her closest family members, know her quite well already. I could complain and ask her to take me off her “Forward” list, but I get so few emails in a day, I don’t mind having something taking space in my Inbox.
posted by Molly W. on 12-5-2007 at 3:59 pm
I have many people in my life who are chain-mail-forwarders. The only one I forgive is my husband’s grandfather. He always sends those “God bless you” ones or just hilariously stupid ones. I know his intentions are good. So I scan them through and delete them.
Others - I just roll my eyes and move on with my day.
PS: I LOVED Christopher Pike. I was reading him in elementary school!
posted by Erin on 12-5-2007 at 4:13 pm
pictures are too small!
posted by te on 12-5-2007 at 4:30 pm
My mother is the worst chain addict I know. I can barely get her to write a note to me that says hello (I live on a different continent), but when she gets a chain message she MUST send it on. The kicker is how many “God love you” messages I get when I’ve never seen a woman in sight of a church let alone in one.
posted by Tricia on 12-5-2007 at 6:31 pm
One time my aunt got a snail mail chain letter. She promptly took it to her priest who promptly tore it to pieces. She never worried about it again. My dogma can beat up your dogma.
posted by gus on 12-5-2007 at 7:29 pm
In my younger days (not too, too long ago) I decided, “What the heck, I need the luck.” and sent-on a (snail mail) Good Luck chain letter. I picked 10 unknown people. I saw an address that I found interesting. So some poor guy living in Aluminum City Terrace got a chain letter from me simply because I got a hoot out of the name “Aluminum City Terrace”.
posted by Tdave on 12-6-2007 at 4:20 am
My aunt HAS to be the most horrible chain e-mail addict in history. It’s even become a family joke. Each day, when I and my other relatives go to clean out our e-mail boxes, invariably three-fourths of them are from her, all with the dreaded FWD: in the subject line.
posted by Jennifer on 12-6-2007 at 8:46 am