Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to communicate all around the world with a little machine that sat on my lap! I can't imagine my life without a microwave...and cell phones...?? I have lived 54 years and am so thankful to have grown up when I did.
As a child, we had 1 T.V.in the house, it was Black & White with only 3 stations...when we did get a colored T.V. everything looked like a cartoon, but we didn't care, it was in Living Color! It was a real treat to watch "The Wizard of Oz" which was shown ONCE a year; same with "The Sound of Music", "Mary Poppins" and, well just about any other movie...and Saturday mornings were my favorite for watching cartoons because we had no Cartoon Network or Disney Channel.
Then at midnight, this is what came on the screen and stayed there with a really annoying sound until about 6:00 or 7:00 AM...
My hubs tells a story of how he and his daughter were "fighting" over the T.V. remote several years ago. He said, "Natalie, when I was a kid we had to get up, walk over to the T.V. and turn the dial"...she looked at him with a very puzzled look and asked, "What's a DIAL?" My how times have changed!
I remember the old dial phones and when we FINALLY got a "push button" phone, we thought we were the coolest! There were 4 kids in our household and when the phone rang, we all raced to answer it because we had no idea who was on the other line. After all, if we missed the call, there was no voice mail and for a long time, no message machines..do you remember "busy signals"? I rarely hear them anymore. And if we needed anything, we dialed "0" and asked the operator...(do they still have operators?)
We listened to music in the living room on REALLY BIG discs...AND, we had no headphones so whatever we listened to, everyone in the house heard! We had to be careful because vinyl records got scratched easily and if we wanted to create a "playlist", we stacked disc upon disc and set it to "auto". They came in 2 sizes; 33 1/3 (we called them LP's or Albums) and 45's....Actually, there were still 78's around when I was really small, but generally they were a thing of the past. (Walkman's came in my adult life...)
I am always amazed at how much we take for granted the modern conveniences we all enjoy. I am guilty as charged! But I do remember the sweet times of my youth. The times when we woke up, went outside and played HARD until it was dark...we played childhood games, Hide-and-Go-Seek, Mother May I, Red Rover, and on and on and on...we had so much fun and none of it was in front of the Television! We played with our toys and used our imaginations all the time...it was a sweet time and I'm so thankful to have lived in that era. I watch my *Littles* and they want to play outside, but they have to have an adult with them at all times. It makes me sad.
Saturday, a cousin of mine contacted me on Facebook. I never really knew her very well as we always lived several states away from each other (her dad was my dad's step-brother and her grandmother was married to my grandfather.) I do remember meeting her on several occasions and her grandmother talked about she and her brother and sister all the time. So imagine my surprise when I get a message on Facebook from her! It was wonderful to reconnect with her and her family. It kind of makes me sad that we have spent so many years not knowing each other. She seems like such a lovely lady who has lived a good life. But now we have a second chance to stay in touch...All because of a little machine called a "laptop". Something that I get on every single day and use to keep in touch with the world!
I hope and pray that I never forget the simpler times in life when we had what we thought were the most modern conveniences...and they were, we had enought and it was good! Life was fun, happy and fulfilling. Now we have so much literally at our fingertips...I never want to take what I have for granted...Isn't modern technology a great blessing?
So today I am so very thankful for all of the conveniences of life. I think we tend to take them for granted and forget that there was a time, not so long ago, where none of them existed. What great blessings we all have!
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4 comments:
I absolutely love this post. I can relate to almost all of these things (except the hair dryer). I remember the TV turning off at midnight with the annoying sound. I had a pink "princess" phone and loved it. I thought candy cigarettes were the bomb! Thank you for the trip down memory lane.
OH this was fun!! I am only 45 this year......but I too remember all of those things. In fact, I went searching for one of those hair dryers in a second hand store last year so that I wouldn't have to hold up a hand dryer anymore (my hands hurt in the cold winter). But they said that they don't make them anymore and that they couldn't accept them anyway due to them being fire hazards with the old cords. Then my grandma heard I wanted one and she pulled her old one out for me! Mint condition!!! I love it. Sometimes the OLD stuff is still GREAT stuff. ; D
I remember everything except the 78s. Our record player was capable of playing them, though. Those were great times (unless you wanted to make a call and someone you didn't know was already using your party line). Thanks for sharing. It brought back great memories. I'm very thankful for modern conveniences, though. I don't know what I would do without them now.
Mary I love your blogs, and this one is great. Since I am one year older than you of course I remember all that stuff. The picture of the T.V. looks exactly like the one we had. Living at the Lake, we had a party line with the Decker's. I use to listen in on your brother Mark's conversations to Debbie. At the end I use to make kissing noises and they use to get so frustrated with me. I use to think they were like Barbie and Ken. With those hair dryers, my roommates in college thought I was so strange, cause I cut the bonnet off of mine and used it like a hair dryer. By the end of the year they had all their bonnets cut off too. Fun memories.
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