It's All About Perspective

I am old. I say that a lot, but sometimes, with the speed at which things change these days, I sure feel old.

When I was a kid, we only had Black & White TV, with a knob on it to change the station or the volume. Cable had not yet been invented. We had a manual typewriter. We wrote letters. We called each other on the phone. We played outside, a lot. We went to friends' houses to play or just hang out after school. We had dinner with the whole family, every night. We called our friends' parents Mr. or Mrs.

We rode our bikes somewhere if our parents could not take us. The Mall was new, and it was a special treat to go there. We walked to school. We stayed in school. School started at 8:30 am and we did not get out until 3:00 pm. 30 minutes for lunch. No after-school care needed.

When I was in High School, my boyfriend had a job and a car. For a date, we could go to Arby's OR a movie, but not both, because he also needed to pay for gas for us to get there. And this was okay.

A computer was a conglomeration of tubes in a big room at IBM. Actually, I think they had to build the building around the beast.

No, I did not walk to school barefoot, in the snow, uphill, both ways, but my parents did. They used to tell us they did not travel across country in a covered wagon.

My kids are college-age now, and they grew up with computers. I knew this, but when my youngest was 6 and he pulled out his Dad's cast-off Palm Pilot-type device to get a phone number, I knew I was out of my element. One year I got him a video (VHS, remember those?) of the top 15 Super Bowl moments. When he thanked me for it, he asked why some of them were filmed in Black & White. ... ... Um, because they were? It's all about perspective.

I have a cell phone, and have had one for many years. I use it mostly for emergencies, and it is more likely to be out of juice than usable. I almost never use it. There is no one I need to talk to so badly that it cannot wait until I get home. Or I can email them and they can get back to me whenever. I cannot understand who all these people on cell phones all day long are talking to.

So apparently in the last two weeks I have entered the 21st century, or so I have been told by the 20-somethings with whom I slave all day. I tweet. I have a Facebook page, though all I post to it are links to my etsy postings. My Google Reader is exploding with all the new blogs I now read because of the tweeple I have met. I am learning new things, and seeing other peoples' art. My Blackberry is in-transit... currently being held hostage by the FedEx guys. Sigh. It is all moving so fast!

What happened to my little world? I was so happy in my little cocoon of no television, no technology (relatively speaking), no noise! I liked being unplugged!

I read this post today, and it got me thinking about all things relative. I remember we were all sent home from school the day President Kennedy was shot, and I have always wondered why, after 40 years, we still remember that day, and not his birthday. I was at summer camp when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time. (I also served Mr. Armstrong dinner when I was a waitress back in my college days, but that's another story for another time.)

So once I get my hands on my new toy, I'll read the manual (yes, Lydia, I will), figure out how to turn on the dang thing, make sure I can get the phone part working, then hopefully get to the Interwebz before I go to the Market on Saturday. I'll report back on if I survive all this technology, or if I need to be pulled back into the dark ages.

I think I need to go stamp something. Thanks for stopping by!