Modern Conveniences

Mommy, is it true that if you wanted to change the channel on the tv, you had to get up to do it?

Yes, that’s true.

Mommy, did you really only have 3 channels on tv?

No, we had 7. Channel 3, 6, 10, 12 (pbs), 17, 29 and 48. Sometimes if you held the rabbit ear antenna just right, we could get another channel from Allentown, but that was rare. And none of the channels were on 24 hours a day. The star spangled banner would play and then it would go off the air.

Wow.

Is it true that you didn’t have to pump your own gas?

Yes, that’s true. The man at the gas station would check the oil, too. He’d do that for free. And if I needed windshield wiper fluid, he’d add that, too.

Were cell phones invented when you were little?

Nope. I remember getting my first one shortly out of high school. It was a bag phone and it was big and heavy – couldn’t fit in a purse or a pocket. I was the first of my friends to have one. I’ve been addicted ever since.

I also grew up with rotary phones – the kind you had to dial. Technology is amazing.

I remember buying my first microwave, computer (it was a gift) and life before ipods. I grew up with vinyl and tapes and encyclopedias.

When my mother was growing up, they had funerals (dead people!) in the parlors of their homes. I never had a dead person in my home. She can remember seeing her first car. I wonder what inventions will impress my kids. Personal flights into space? The regeneration of limbs? What’s next?

Modern technology is awesome and so….modern…..