When I say AM I do not mean before noon I mean the opposite of FM, or the free radio not delivered via satellite. For those of you who are under the age of 30 this is a completely foreign statement. In fact AM radio is completely foreign to my children. Having a sad and startling revelation that my children will not know what life is like before technology. Hell I can even throw out to my kids that I used to walk a mile in the cold and freezing snow to get to the bus stop for school. Which I did for about two days before my parents ponied up and bought me a car since they saw how inhumane it was to allow myself and my brother and sister to walk a mile, down hill, in the cold, wet, freezing snow. Actually it was because we pitched a fit, but regardless, no more walking in the snow.
Today’s children and as I said before most people under the age of 30 have no clue what life was like without some of our common and everyday household items and necessities, and I have to laugh because they have no idea what some of these items were and how they were so “hip” and “technologically advanced” for their time.
Moms and Dads of my generation and my parents generation please laugh with me as I recall listening to 8-track tapes, 45’s, records (known today as vinyl), then into cassette tapes, watching movies on the Saturday night special to BETA and then VHS, when my parents got our first color TV from Montgomery Wards, we had an Intellivision (from Intel mind you….the company so renowned for their microchips) and then my parents got us the first Nintendo some years later, we got our first microwave that was the size of a Volkswagen where we could microwave our popcorn and no longer make it over the stove, our phone was upgraded from a rotary dial to a touch tone dial.
Today we have cell phones, where my kids won’t have a clue what it is like to be cemented to a phone where your upgrade is a 20 foot cord from Radio Shack so you can walk to the bathroom from the kitchen to pee while talking to your BFF. Texting, well that used to be done via writing a note and we knew text as the small print on the bottom of the screen during your favorite show commonly known today as “closed captioning.”
The best part about cell phones is their evolution. From Motorola’s revolutionary brick to the new, hot, and one of the most wanted smartphones on the market that is just a bit larger than the size of a credit card, Motorola’s DroidX. Who would have thought that the phone with no more than a single hour of talk time alloted to it’s battery life could now allow you to touch the screen, download music, text, surf the web, and have a talk life of about five hours (if I am quoting this correctly.
Even more entertaining, my kids get in the car and are frustrated that the TV on their dual DVD screen in our Dodge Grand Caravan SXT is not a touch screen. They immediately touch it because they hope that if they touch it their favorite movie will start. Little do they know they have to ask mom (moi), well at least Grant is still aware of this, that mom controls the movie at the dash and in the cockpit of the van. They furthermore have no idea what life will be like without Google. Today at the quick flick of the fingertips you can find an answer to many of life’s puzzling questions, where in my day, you had to hit the books. You know the hard the cardboard and canvas binded, green, black, or navy colored books titled “Encyclopedia.”
Now here are my kids in action, having no clue what life will be like without the touch phone, touch screen, and what life would be like playing board games unless I absolutely force it upon them…but hey they don’t have an Angry Birds board game do they? I have a feeling it would not be as much fun as it is on the iPad.
Lmao! Angry birds!!! I love the heart and I know bitty was about to say “my heart”. I miss the kids!
No Aunt Bwittnee its STINKY birds. LMAO! Give your towheads some love for me…I miss the little princess and the big boss….how’s Big D holding up?
Idk why I used a diff email for the last comment and “stinky birds”. Lmfao! I listened again but now it sounds like stinker birds!! Is bitty from England? What up with her accent?! Think we might come visit this weekend!
My hubby and I have the occasional conversation over how much has changed over the years. I too remember the 8 track tapes and actual record albums. Rotary phones, in my day, were the only phone in the house and it was attached to the wall in the kitchen. It was a luxury if you purchased a two foot cord so that you could actually walk away from the phone to pace. There weren’t any computers in schools when I was growing up and we learned to type on a fully manual typewriter. To think my girls are growing up in an age where the only thing they know is cell phones and wireless!
Jenine you are bringing back some memories for me! I got a “word processor” which was an over glorified typewriter, as a graduation gift from high school. My gift to myself graduating college was my laptop. The difference years can make. I still have some old 45s and vinyls at my moms, I grew up on the Beach Boys, Beattles, The Doors, Led Zeplin and Captain Kangaroo….now these kids have no idea and it is amazing. It is amazing how our times have changed and how fast they are learning as well.