{"id":4983,"date":"2009-10-20T13:45:29","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T18:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2025-07-31T22:52:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T03:52:51","slug":"the-internet-before-al-gore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/the-internet-before-al-gore\/","title":{"rendered":"The internet before Al Gore"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_17129\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17129\" style=\"width: 351px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17129\" src=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/20091013_xytd.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of a little boy at a diner with food all over his mouth.\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">XY TD on a trip to Hy-Vee with Mama.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Yeah, the joke\u2019s tired. Sue me.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, 3-almost-4-year-old XY Tax Deduction and I went to Hy-Vee for lunch to kill some time. I love Hy-Vee\u2019s salad bar (best grilled chicken EVER!) and XY TD loves their pizza. And cantaloupe. On the same plate.<\/p>\n<p>It has been my observation that on weekday mornings at Hy-Vee, there is a large number of post-retirement gentlemen sitting around, eating their farmer\u2019s breakfasts and <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">gossiping<\/span> shooting the breeze, cussing and discussing. They seem to be mostly together, but because of tables and space, they self-select their table companions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-16397\" src=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190430_cafe2.jpg\" alt=\"A small brick diner with a sign that says CAF\u00c9.\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\">It has been my observation that on weekends when we go see my in-laws in southern Missouri, and we go to the local cafe for breakfast, there is a gathering of four to 10 post-retirement gentlemen sitting around, eating their farmer\u2019s breakfasts and <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">gossiping<\/span> shooting the breeze, cussing and discussing.<\/p>\n<p>It has been my observation in re-reading the Little House books for the purpose of writing <em>Stay<\/em>, Pa Ingalls, in the winter, would head out of the house and across the street to the grocery where he would watch off-season farmers play checkers and, I assume, <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">gossip <\/span>shoot the breeze, cuss and discuss.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_16396\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16396\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-16396\" src=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190430_cafe1.jpg\" alt=\"Four old men sitting in an old caf\u00e9 eating breakfast.\" width=\"350\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190430_cafe1.jpg 2332w, https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190430_cafe1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190430_cafe1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-16396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Men don\u2019t gossip. They <strong><em>shoot the breeze<\/em><\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Women have these little conclaves, too, but other than in a church-and-crafts context, I can\u2019t think of anything comparable to men-and-their-morning-cafe-routine.<\/p>\n<p>Every time I witness this, I think, \u201cThis is the internet before there was the internet.\u201d And it still seems to be going strong. I love it. I think it\u2019s profound in a lot of different ways, most of which I can\u2019t articulate.<\/p>\n<p>Too bad you have to be retired (or in the off season) to have it and enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yeah, the joke\u2019s tired. Sue me. Anyway, 3-almost-4-year-old XY Tax Deduction and I went to Hy-Vee for lunch to kill some time. I love Hy-Vee\u2019s salad bar (best grilled chicken EVER!) and XY TD loves their pizza. And cantaloupe. On the same plate. It has been my observation that on weekday mornings at Hy-Vee, there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[367,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4983"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17133,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions\/17133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}