Friday, January 29, 2010

How Things Have Changed

THE PAST

I grew up with all of these things:

I listened to the radio with my grandparents. Fibber McGee and Molly, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny... all the old radio shows ("The Shadow Knows").


The milkman left bottles of milk on our back porch. The cream rose to the top.


Finally, when I was six years old, we got a T.V. Howdy Doody was a favorite.


We drove a Chevy that looked like this. No seat belts, no air conditioning.


Our phone looked like this. We were on a party line.

As a teenager, I played my records on a turntable like this:


And I loved my little transistor radio. I took it with me everywhere.


I remember my dad using one of these:


THE PRESENT

Now we have all of these things:


We shop for ipods, iphones, and laptops:


We shop for apps and itunes. We consult with geniuses.


We shop in glass houses:




With glass staircases:


When I was a little girl I used to wonder what the future would look like. Well, I think this is it.




THE FUTURE

Now I have three little nieces, ages 12, 10, and 8. I guess they will remember all the things we have now as part of their childhood. I wonder what they will see in their future. I hope I am around to see it.

4 comments:

rachel said...

It's breathtaking isn't it, how much change there has been in half our lifetimes. But I often thought the same about my grandmother, who was born in 1890 and who saw the moon landings on television....

judy in ky said...

Yes, I am still amazed when I think about the moon landing. I was staring up at the moon, trying to imagine it.

Bearette said...

Ooh, a party line...I would've loved listening in on conversations :)

judy in ky said...

Yeah, it was our version of "social networking".