My Guy and I were trying to remember our first car that had cupholders. Amazingly, just like seat belts and automatic windows, there was once a time when they were unheard of.
This brought me to the time years back when my sister-in-law told us about one of their sons’ friends, who was old enough to drive but who was directionally challenged. His father had so despaired of his son’s inability to get from point A to point B that he bought him some weird thing called GPS.
Then there was the time in the early 80s when I worked two evenings a week as the ward secretary on the pediatrics floor. During a lull at the nurses’ station, Judy B, one of the RNs working that evening paused to report on her latest purchase. It sounded too good to be true for those of us working the 3-11 shift while still trying to feed the families we’d left at home. Apparently, this wonder could reheat full meals without ever turning on the stove. It was called a microwave.
A few more years went by and I had a classroom. We teachers were catching up with each other after spring vacation, and one person there was fully versed in what another teacher, Bette H, had been up to that week – even though she’d never spoken to her. Through the magic of this new thing called the World Wide Web, Bette had sent daily emails of all her doings.
In the blink of an eye!!
ReplyDeleteI must be the only person in America who has never owned a microwave. I almost loved being a ward secretary/clerk and was so good at it I was allowed to do “other” things as well. Such as taking vitals when the nurses and aides were swamped wit new admits. I remember being so excited about the World Wide Web that I bought books that taught me all about it. Still wish I’d gone on to learn how really write code. I was an artist/graphic designer though and didn’t think I could excel at both.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that job, too. Something different every minute.
DeleteMy Guy and I often talk about needing several more lives to try all those other things and to live other places.
I started writing code before the WWW...at least before it became widely used. In grad school, ca 1980, I took basic, pascal, fortran and the first iteration of C....only to never use them. I've stopped being 'up to date' years ago, and may be the only person in America with a flip-top phone.
ReplyDeleteWhich gives you the cred to use that flip phone proudly!
DeleteI think of my father born in 1907. He said he came with the automobile and went out with a man on the moon. Actually, he was an engineer who worked at Goodyear Aerospace; very involved with the space missions.
ReplyDeletePeople's backgrounds are endlessly fascinating.
DeleteI knew about the WWW for years before I discovered blogs. There was a small article in a newspaper one day about "blogs" and a local woman who wrote one titled "blurbfromtheburbs" Well I looked that up and got hooked although it was a few months before I figured out how to comment and another long while before I started my own blog.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing my first electronic pocket calculator. As a teacher, I was blown away with how this could help me calculate marks and averages come report time. It was only 4 function but was expensive ~$100 IIRC. Now, if we bother with them at all, they are maybe a buck or two.
ReplyDeleteI remember how afraid I was of the microwave when we first got one. :-)
ReplyDelete