Remember when

I grew up in the time that no one had computers. Computers were these huge pieces of machinery that took up entire rooms. They helped to land man on the moon but in no way did they affect my personal life. I was a teenager before we had Atari. I can remember black and white television, I saw the wizard of Oz at least twice before I realized that Oz had colors. And yes there was only three channels, four if the wind was blowing right. There were two knobs that controlled the channel. The top knob was for the lower numbered stations such as 7 and 9. The bottom knob was for the higher stations such as 13 and 53. Yes kids of today, there were 4 channels that came into that little black and white box and if a ballgame was on or the president…that was it for the night. And no, there wasn’t a remote. You had to WALK to the tv set and physically change the channels. But it really didn’t take too much effort. Four channels remember?

We didn’t have tivo or recorders. If you missed it the first time you were left asking , “what happened?” Bathroom breaks were scheduled for commercial breaks, and if you wanted to get back before the show started again, you had to sneak in front of your siblings. If you wanted a snack too, you had better hurry. Popcorn was popped on the stove and I can still clearly remember when we got the first air popper. You plugged it in and poof, the popcorn spun around and then started to pop. It was almost like a magic show…Okay that is an exaggeration, but it was all new to me.

We had a party line when I was young. That means more than one house shared the same phone line. Every time you wanted to make a call you had to quietly pick up the phone and listen to see if your neighbor was using the line. And if your neighbor was a bit mean, you got to listen to mixers running or them sweeping just so you couldn’t make a call. And when you finally got a dial tone and made your call, they would pick up and listen to your conversation or make noises so you would hang up.

Cell phones? HA, cordless phones would have amazed me. I would have looked for where the cord hooked into the phone and never made a call because I thought that phone was broken. Heck I can remember the excitement when we got our own private line. One phone line for one house. No more sharing it with the neighbors.

Yes we did have indoor plumbing and electricity, but we also had an outhouse that served well when the electricity was off and we couldn’t pump water. The only problem with that was that the wasps and bees liked that building too so it was a gamble to see if you could finish before you were attacked by the stinger clad warriors that protected their domain. That little building served its purpose well. I almost cried when it was torn down and filled in.

My grandparents drank nothing but well water. That was the only choice, city water wasn’t available until I was in jr. high school. We didn’t have a well so everyday my brother or I would go get 4 or 5 gallons of water from my grandparents house across the yard. We had a cistern that caught rain water to wash and do laundry with but the drinking water had to be carried. I could actually carry 6 gallons of water at one time. I was small but mighty.

It seemed about the time I hit late elementary school and jr. high everything changed. Although truth be told we had colored tv by then. But we got the new phone lines, microwaves came onto the market, video games were all the rage, and there were remotes to the new tv set. And computers were starting to become available to the common man.

My first computer class involved detailed schematics to draw a simple line. There were no windows programs for me. And after working weeks to make a simplistic drawing, I figured that I would never really use a computer. So it was a new toy that wouldn’t really have an effect on my life…..Boy I was wrong.

All of this rambling has a point. Some of you in the more progressive parts of the country would assume that I am a lot older than I am. I am only 36. But I know of which I speak. There has been a lot of changes in my one little lifetime. From what I remember to where we are today is a huge step. My kids have no problem with the knowledge that what I write today can be read by hundreds of people tonight. They know I can be talking to someone in England in real time and think nothing of it. But at their ages it would have shocked me.

But I guess new technology and advances are taken one at a time. You learn that tv has color before you learn that phones don’t need a wire between the base and handset. I have learned that my life 25-30 years ago is nothing like my life now. And that gives me goose bumps and the thoughts of what tomorrow holds, rush out to claim my attention.

What grand things may happen? What will my kids write about when they are 30? What things will their kids take for granted but amaze them? I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to wait and see like everyone else. The thought is exciting, even if it is a bit scary at the same time.