Technological Memories

Yesterday The Hubby tore my computer apart.  It had been running slow and crashing while I was working on a project.  It is amazing to me that he knows how to do this.  After all, he's old enough for medicare.

I can remember feeling the same way back in the 50's.  Yes, I can remember them.  My brother Nick made his own radios.  I can't remember if he had kits or just used household objects.  But I do remember the "crystal radio" and hearing the sounds of an AM radio station crackling through it.  There was also one he made that you could attach to metal objects that were grounded - like the telephone - and it would pick up any strong signals along with lots of static.

Television wasn't a 24-hour concern when it came to our house.  When the programming was done for the day, you heard the national anthem and then the test pattern appeared until the next day dawned.  I don't have any memories of day-time television until I was a bit older, although "Hop-a-long Cassidy" might have been an afternoon show.  Our family watched TV together after supper.  First the news, of course.  Then Ozzie & Harriet, The Bob Cummings Show,  Arthur Godfrey,  Leave it To Beaver......

Telephone?  Would any of us every believed that we would have a communicator that even Star Trek Captain Kirk would covet?  My earliest telephone memory is a a large black phone with a rotary dial that connected to a four-party line.  Before you dialed, you had to pick it up to see if anyone was talking on it.
Now my teeny pocket phone has computer ability.  It communicates with satellites!  My phone knows exactly where I am.

Last winter Auntie Fern turned 104.  At that time she was still able to converse, watch television, and talk on the phone.  She was amazed at my cell phone and was more than "tickled" when we shared texts and photos with her granddaughter who lives several hours away.   She has memories from the age of 3, about the news of Titanic Sinking.  I'm not sure how the news arrived.  I doubt that the little farming community had telephone service in 1912. That woman lived through the introduction of cars and planes, central heating and electric kitchen appliances, movie theaters, super markets, frozen foods ...  the list goes on and on.  The things people today just take for granted.

I am overwhelmed.   Google Glasses?  The Cloud?  Twitter went public?  My grandchildren mention new social media trends that scare the dickens out of me.  Sigh.  And some day this too will just be some young persons memory.













Comments

karisma said…
We were discussing this very subject over birthday cake the other day. The kids were amazed that there were no cell phones or PC's when we were kids. But how did you survive? I mean really? God forbid they would have to walk into another room to actually speak to someone. LOL
Intense Guy said…
I was just talking to my mom about her grannie (she was the "go to person" for killing rattlesnakes - her 5 strapping boys wouldn't do it!) and anyway, we got on to how much the world changed from say about 1895 to 1925.. cars, telephones, widespread indoor plumbing, air conditioning, "talkies" at the movies and on and on...

You bring up how things have changed from say 1990-2010/2013... the change is likely just as significant - and just as "unknown" as to "how 'good' it's going to be".

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