Evelyn Wilson

It was an Evelyn Wilson weekend for us.

Evelyn Wilson was the mother of a mutual friend of Gigi and mine back when we were just teenagers living in Durham, NC.

Evelyn had some mid level management job at Bank of America that required long hours during the work week. Back in the 70’s it was rare for a woman to have such a job. Most working women were nurses, teachers, or worked in retail.

It was standard operating procedure that on the weekends that Evelyn would stay mostly in her robe, watch TV in bed and do nothing productive. She didn’t receive guests, talked very little to anyone including her husband and children and was basically unseen.

You might get a glimpse of Evelyn foraging for food in the Kitchen.

Those two days were Evelyn’s and she spent them anyway she wanted. In her case this was the ultimate R and R.

Back then we did not have cable or satellite TV; therefore Evelyn was confined to watching one of four local channels of which one was Public TV. Public TV was terrible back then and it was referred to as Educational TV.

I should have known an Evelyn Wilson weekend was coming.

First the weather was uninhabitable. It was hot, sticky, no breeze and was on the verge of fog most of the weekend. It was just plain old heavy outside. I don’t even plan outdoor activities whenever the dew point is in the 70’s and the windows fog.

Then there was the British Open. I stayed on the sofa most of Saturday and Sunday watching a bunch of guys play golf 6 times zones away.

Gigi stayed in bed and watched old movies, and did some beading and jewelry making.

Finally the last nail in the coffin for an official Evelyn Wilson weekend was that we lost all connectivity with the outside world when Internet connection went down.

Late Friday night a bolt of lightening hit nearby and took out the basic cable; broadband Internet and our electric fence (but please don’t tell the horses).

Losing the Internet connection really depressed me. Heck I almost lost my will to blog.

Normally I leave my laptop running 24/7 right at my chair. I constantly scan news, weather, scores, blog, check email, instant message or Google anything that crosses my mind. Trust me, a lot of things cross my mind.

I go so desperate that late Sunday I attempted to use a dialup connection that Time Warner gives you as a backup. Just for a little glimpse of Yahoo, and email I thought.

But no, it was not meant to be. In my happier broadband times, I had casually discarded my dialup password. A new password would take 24 hours to become effective.

So, as it turned out it was an Evelyn Wilson weekend and we just chilled and did nothing. That was fun.

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