My grandmother liked tell the story of the first time she saw an automobile. She was young and living in England and somebody came down her street in a horseless carriage. Everyone got to go for a ride, when her turn came it scared her, how could it possibly be moving on its own? So she jumped off. To my knowledge she never did learn to drive. I always envied that particular generation. Imagine having lived before the advent of the automobile. Then seeing the first ones, and living well into the next century. I thought never again will the world see such an amazing transformation.
So the other night my wife and I were lying in bed reading electronic books on our ipods…
The other day I was telling a story to one of my co-workers and had to stop in the middle and explain that at the time there were no cell phones. A few minutes later I had to explain that there were no computers either.
Sometimes I feel old. Is this how my grandmother felt , what of her grandmother?
And what will my grand nephews and nieces see?
How about blocks of ice in a box that used to serve as a refrigerator, or shoveling coal from the bin into the furnace, or a wood burning stove to cook on. We lived through all of that no electric fridges, no oil or electric heating and certainly no gas or electric stoves. Also no television and our phones were on what was called a party line. Usually 3 or more subscribers would share a line. Each party had a certain number of rings. You weren’t supposed to answer if it wasn’t your ring, but we did anyway. Heard lots of conversations we shouldn’t have. You were doing well if there were only 2 on line and you way up there if you somehow swung a private line. I could go on, milk came in bottles and was delivered by the milkman in a horse drawn carriage. Let alone computers, there were no calculators either. There was a hand operated adding machine, but that’s all it could do – add. Life was much simpler then. People really didn’t complain a whole lot. we took life as it was and enjoyed it.
We had a party line is St. Agath, if memory serves it was two longs and a short.
Sent from my iPod
I always said of G’ma’s gen. From steam to cd’s!