By Grandpa

I think I might be a little behind on the times. All of these kids are getting upset about the newest Apple-pod-phone 7 or whatever you call it not having a ‘headphone jack,’ and quite frankly, it’s making me mad.

Back in my day, the only ‘jacks’ we had were the ones used to hold up your car, and my friend Jack that served with me in Vietnam. Now, even mobile telephones have jacks!

Heck, just the other day my grandson was complaining about the ‘jack’ that his phone has now! Apparently it didn’t work or something, the selfish little punk. You know who did work? My buddy Jack, he wouldn’t complain when we were out in the Vietnamese jungle.

I really don’t see what the big deal is. Me and my wife just turn on the radio whenever we want to listen to music, and we turn on the TV whenever we want to watch a ‘YouTube’ or whatever it’s called. My buddy Jack always said that music should be shared, not kept to yourself.

Even my son Rob was upset about having to use ‘wireless earpods’ or whatever they were called. When he was a kid, we had a wired television, and our record player had wires running to the speakers. Hell, when I was in Vietnam, I wish that our radio back to base had actual wires. Maybe then, Jack would still have his leg.

The way I see it, technology is just a distraction anyway. All of this talk about ‘headphone jacks’ and ‘iPhone 9s,’ but no one really wants to talk about big issues. I mean for crying out loud, it’s an election year! We’re about to pick the next president, and all people care about is a little hole in a piece of plastic. I guess it takes seeing your best friend in a wheelchair on a Navy hospital ship to put things in perspective.

At the end of the day, these kids don’t have anything to complain about. My landline makes calls just as well as anything else, and even my car has a radio in it. They could learn a thing or two from my buddy Jack; he never complained.