Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Changes from generation to generation

It occurred to me the other day that like things of my mom’s past, I am now old enough to have experienced things that you most likely will not.  Maybe some of these things will show my age, but we all age at some point right?  And it’s how old you feel you are that counts right? 
I could not help but wonder, will you know what this symbol # is/was called?  I think quite possibly it could be Jeopardy trivia in about 30 years.  “This symbol used to have other uses before it became the precedent to a hashtag.  What is the pound sign Alex.”  Yes, Alex most likely won’t be around but I could not help but chuckle at the mere fact that the pound sign is quickly and mostly known as what goes before the hashtag and I can see, as the use of it increases, quickly becoming called hashtag itself. 
Growing up I used to get confused when calling some numbers.  They would ask you to put in your zip code or some other number and for the longest time, I had to think, “Okay.  When they ask me to push the pound sign when I’m done, which one is it, # or *?” 
This reminds me of our trip to North Carolina a few weeks back.  Your cousin Nick walked up to me and showed me what he called a GPS and that it didn’t work.  Now, I could not help but laugh.  It was an old Sony Walkman!!!  This was something we used to listen to music on as kids!

Your generation probably won’t know how cool we thought cassettes, or better known as tapes (this is what we played on the Sony Walkman), were as kids.  We’d listen to the radio and try to record the song that was playing to the tape but you had to get it just right so as to get as much of the song as you could before the DJ would come in.  It became a skill!  Don't even get me started on records!  There are people who are my age that haven't listened to a record!  Insanity!  (smile)
Or the fact that there used to be toys in the cereal boxes!  Yes, you read that right, toys!  They weren’t very big but it was always fun to see if you got the toy when the cereal was poured and if not, who was going to get it and when would it fall out?! 


And phones, well, they used to be much different than they are today.  Today, most people have cell phones and no longer have home phones or land lines.  We decided to get a land line when you were born but we still have digital phones.  The original phone was attached directly to the wall and had a cord that went from the phone to the handset.  And, you’d talk and walk on the phone and get tangled up in it!  Sometimes, it would be quite hilarious to see how tangled you got!
(And the phone below still looks more high tech than phones we used growing up!)


Which brings me to a similiar topic, payphones.  They used to be everywhere!  You would go to them and make a collect call (a phenomenon where the person you were calling  would either accept the charges of the phone call or not) or deposit a quarter into them for 60 seconds worth of time!  Now, when you  see them (they have become more and more rare), they have a slot for credit cards and usually cost at least a $1 per call!
It’s kind of neat to think about all the changes that will happen in your lifetime and the rest of mine.  What will be here, what won’t be here.  And funnier still, when you watch “Back to the Future” part 2 knowing that the time period in the movie is past and how wrong they assumed things would be. (smile)

Love you baby cakes! 
Mommy
PS...For readers, what are some other things you can think of that have changed or that you think will change in the future?

2 comments:

  1. There still are toys in cereal boxes! And sometimes books! :)

    Let's see. Movies have changed. VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, OnDemand, Netflix, etc.

    Who uses a paper wall calendar anymore? Not too often.

    Paying all your bills through the mail, vs. web bill pay.

    Old school thermometers where you have to shake the mercury down.

    Speaking of mercury, mercurochrome was this medicine that your parents put on scrapes before Neosporin.

    The Saturday Afternoon Movie. R.I.P.

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    1. Oooo! That reminds me, the after school movie!!!

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