I’ve seen so much change in my lifetime it staggers the mind. I remember my family going to town to see an air show. As I recall the air show consisted of a few airplanes lined up and everybody could get up close and really look them over. It was a big deal. Somebody flew one across the sky and all the people stood and gawked at it. Then everybody went home and talked about the air show for weeks. If we happened to hear one flying overhead, we would all run outside and shade our eyes and watch it until it went out of sight. Then we had something else to talk about the rest of the week. Life was exciting back then.
My grandparents had a telephone. It was a big monstrous thing that was attached to the wall. My Grandma was kind of short and had to stand on a small stool to use it. The stool was always on the floor under the phone. We happened to be there one day when it rang, and it scared me. I’m sure glad I got over that, with all the sounds we hear today. I was only four years old at that time.
Our neighbors invited us over to listen to their radio. We had never seen one before. We all sit around the living room and the voice came on out of the big box, and was talking. It was just mind boggling, as to how it could do that. We talked about the radio for a month or more. We never dreamed we would be able to own one some day. Life was exciting back then.
Our neighbors invited us over to listen to their radio. We had never seen one before. We all sit around the living room and the voice came on out of the big box, and was talking. It was just mind boggling, as to how it could do that. We talked about the radio for a month or more. We never dreamed we would be able to own one some day. Life was exciting back then.
I remember my folks buying a motorized washer to wash our laundry in. It was before we had electricity, so the Washer had a motor such as a lawn mower and ran on gas. You had to yank on a cord to get it started. My mother fell in love with it at first sight. She no longer had to stand over a scrub board all day doing our laundry. Starting the Washing Machine was kind of a big deal. At least for us kids, we all begged to pull the cord. We were not allowed to, but we could watch our father as he pulled the cord and the machine would come to life. At that point we had to clear the area so Mom could get the laundry started. Life was exciting back then.
How life has changed. You know how much so I won’t get into that. Life may have been exciting, but it can’t compare with what goes on today.
How life has changed. You know how much so I won’t get into that. Life may have been exciting, but it can’t compare with what goes on today.
***Happy New Year***
1 comment:
Happy New Year, Lorrene!
I've mentioned before how similar your experiences have been to that of my father and his family. In 1925 a three year old saw his first airplane high in the Ozark skies and knew that was what he wanted to do. When he was 18 he joined the Navy to be in the Naval Air Corps and after the war got his private pilots license, went to college and then to work for the Boeing Company. He never got over his love and amazement of airplanes, even when they grew to the size of the 747.
My grandmother's family had a phone like you describe. Her mother was little, too, and probably had to stand on a stool to talk into it, but the story I remember my grandmother telling is of one day she was sitting on a stool while her mother braided her hair. There was a thunderstorm going on outside and a fireball shot out of the mouth piece straight for her head. She was unhurt, but forever after very upset by thunder storms.
In some ways technology connects us and in other ways isolates us. I've been thinking about that for some time. I'm pleased that a 737 brought my youngest home for the holidays and glad I can make contact with him via cell phone or Facebook, but nothing replaces the human contact of running out into the yard and experiencing something together.
Remember when Dick Tracy's watch-phone was amazing? I think some of the amazement has gone out of life.
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