With all the technology we have at our fingertips why would anyone want to buy a wall calendar these days. Think about it. We have calendars on our phones, calendars on the computer, calendars in our Email application, calendars on our watches, and even the date on our car stereo.
The wall calendar should be as dead as a doornail. Yet the more accurate phrase is “the wall calendar is dead, long live the wall calendar!” What magic gives this lowest timekeeping device alive and well?
Here are my top five reasons the low tech “wall calendar” thrives in this technology-driven society:
In our high-tech screen-driven world, images and information are fleeting. This creates a human desire for something physical and more permanent. We have two calendars in the house. One in the kitchen and one in the main bathroom. I usually make two calendars, one of the Eastern Sierra and one of Dodger Stadium. We catch ourselves regularly stopping and looking at the images. It takes us back to places and experiences we love.
It is like having Christmas twelve times a year. The calendar in the kitchen is too high for my wife to reach. On the first of each month, one of the first things she asks me to do is to flip the page on the calendar. She looks forward to seeing what the next image is going to be. It’s like opening a present! Some of the images have a special meaning because, as my “Photographer’s Assistant” she told me to take them!
Wall calendars bring people together. You can write something on a calendar for a specific date. From that point on everyone can see it without having to ask Alexa. We have a group of longtime friends with who we get together several times a year. With kids, sports, and work it is hard to schedule things. We have a planning party every year to map out the things we want to do together for the next year. You should see the calendars come out at that event. If you have a friend that really likes a particular topic a quality wall calendar on that topic is a great way to provide an inexpensive gift that still has a very personal touch.
I think having a wall calendar hanging up is also a character statement. Let me give you an example. In the Book Blue Highway, the author takes a trip around the US trying to drive only on “Blue” highways, meaning back roads. In the book he stated he could predict the type of meal he was about to have by the number of calendars the restaurant had on its walls:
“No calendar: Same as an interstate pit stop
One calendar: Preprocessed food assembled in New Jersey
Two calendars: Only if fish trophies are present
Three calendars: Can’t miss on the farm-boy breakfast
Four calendars: Try the ho-made pie too
Five calendars: Keep it under your hat, or they will franchise”
Now think about it. The last road trip you made. If the joint had a calendar or two, usually of a local youth sports team or a local business, the food was pretty good and the service was friendly. Now think about the last time you saw a calendar at a McDonalds. Enough said.
Well, maybe one last point for my Highway 395 friends. Our first impression of the Aberdeen Resort was a Margie standing in front of a wall calendar hanging next to a rotary phone. The food was off the chart.
Aberdeen Resort
5. The benefits of buying from a local or small-time artist that focuses on a place or thing you love.
In my case the Eastern Sierra. You are supporting a local artist. That artist will put some of that
money back into the local economy of the place you love. If that was not enough, the calendar will
bring you back to your happy place all year long.
We have several calendars up on the walls of our house. The connection between calendars on the wall and good food that the Blue Highway author makes is true. The BBQ at the Kent house is pretty tasty.
Reverse Seared Rib Eye
After reading this you have the desire to buy a wall calendar of the Eastern Sierra check out mine at the link below.
