Forgot my phone

From inside the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens.

Where does the time go? On holiday, it seems to slip away as no more than drifting into another galaxy, which is kind of what it’s like going from the West Coast to the East Coast. We’re staying with friends in Delaware, also popping into New Jersey to visit my husband’s college buddy and his family. Today will be full of hanging out, with my phone not far away. Yesterday we went to Longwood Gardens, and it wasn’t until we were almost there that I realized my phone had not made the voyage.

Of all the days to forget one’s phone, or rather my camera, this wasn’t one I would have chosen. When we arrived, my husband ascertained that yes, my device was back at the house, which was a comfort, yet how many pictures awaited on Pierre and Alice du Ponts' marvelous acreage? A lot, I knew, and my hubby happily acquiesced when I requested his mobile. I snapped a heap of flowers in the conservatory, but gave the phone back to him after we exited, in part that I didn’t want to run down his battery like I had my own when we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (more about that amazing day soon!). Also that ironically and recently we had discussed going phone-free and here was my inadvertent chance to do so.

Being three time zones ahead of my family, as well as the delineation of vacation, is as good a time as any to wander untethered to what has become necessary technology in this twenty-first century. Or a phone is perceived as imperative; yet other than missing the camera aspect, I embraced not having my phone, wandering through beautiful grounds caught up in where I was, only a few times noting the immediate urge to snap a photograph. We smiled at how despite having brought an extra phone, I didn’t have it in my rather heaving backpack. (Note to self; next time put the back-up device in the pack JUST IN CASE.) Other than the camera, I didn’t miss the phone or more rightly I didn’t miss the distraction.

When Pierre and Alice du Pont were designing and improving their not so modest farm, a telephone was one of their mightiest technological devices, other than what Pierre and his advisors were cooking up for their various floral endeavors. Alice died in 1944, Pierre a decade later. Not to dwell too much on all that has altered since, but…. Yesterday I saw one man using an actual camera, with a telephoto lens even. Otherwise phone cameras were out in full, and yes, there was much to photograph. There was also more than I could have mentally catalogued in the take it all in department, making me wonder if I have traded the ability to be in the moment to instead snap the hell out of it. I took so many pictures at the art museum, running down my phone’s battery to nine percent! And while I’m glad for all those digital memories, what about my own mental ties to that day?

Don’t get me wrong, I have some VERY KEEN thoughts about what I saw, which I will expound upon soon enough. I also have deep ponderings about Pierre and Alice’s achievements at Longwood, definitely a place to visit if you are in the southern Pennsylvania/Delaware region. But more on my mind right this minute is how invasive are mobile phones, whether used as a camera to record one’s holiday excursion or what cell phones have become in this initial quarter of the twenty-first century. As I wandered through Pierre and Alice’s home, again the most techie aspect was the old black telephone on Pierre’s enormous desk. It was a partner desk, graced simply by books, a large blotter, and of course his phone. Yet that phone is not like mine, usually living in my pocket except when I set it on the bench seat while putting on shoes, then forget to put it back in my pocket. Other than not taking a multitude of photos, I didn’t miss my phone at all. Maybe my memories of Longwood Gardens will remain more vibrantly within my gray matter than if I’d had that phone. Maybe someday instead of a cell phone, I’ll carry around a capable little camera less than half the size of my current device, in part that small because it’s only a camera.

What would Pierre and Alice have made of all my musings? How will I incorporate them into my life? Just more delights of being on holiday, plenty of time to ramble inwardly and elsewhere.