2018 Challenge to Myself: 365 snippets of what my mom would’ve considered Company Towel worthy.
Let me explain. My mother was a social media forerunner, but she died 21 years ago. How could that be, you ask? Did social media even exist?
It did. In our bathroom. We lived in a farmhouse with one bathroom. One. It was a narrow room, so, when sitting upon the commode, the bathroom occupant faced the opposite wall where the company towels hung on a towel bar. These were the pretty towels. The towels that matched the decor. The towels we were, under no circumstances, allowed to use. They were for company. And because these pristinely unsullied towels hung there right before the eyes of the current occupant, my mom used the opportunity afforded by undivided attention. She PINNED things to the towels, right where she knew we would see them. She POSTED stuff to the WALL she wanted to SHARE.
From one day to the next, one of us bathroom regulars might find the latest Peanuts comic strip that made her laugh, or a tidbit of advice from the newspaper. She pinned jokes to make us laugh. She posted definitions of words to increase our vocabulary. She pinned snippets from her etiquette books to sneak some culture into her farm kids. She shared information. Humor. Inspiration. Her favorite photos.
Do you begin to see it? The irony? She would’ve picked up on it right away and rolled her eyes good-naturedly at how the world has progressed from her Company Towels to Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram and Twitter. She was creating memes before anyone had invented the word.
That was a long explanation for my 2018 challenge. My brilliant mother would be 90 years old if she’d lived past her 69th. So I have decided to share one snippet every day this year - something she would’ve found Company Towel worthy.
Do you know what she’d point out with a chuckle? Just how much of social media is still read in the bathroom. She knew her audience, after all.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I left this year's worth of posts in their original order with their original titles (Day 1, Day 2, etc.) for a couple of years, but now they've all been renamed. You can always find them by their original day by searching Tags.
Comments