Year's End

2009 will soon be a part of history. It had its high points and its low points but that can be said of each and every year. Life just keeps moving on and will do so with or without us. I feel very fortunate to have lived to be as old as I am. Life 85 years ago was so far removed from what life is like today. I wonder what my grand parents and parents would have thought of some of the advances and innovations of today. I read an article just the other day about the people that were sentenced to prison for 20years and are now eligible for parole. Some of them were interviewed and asked how it felt to be free again. They expressed awe and confusion at what they found in the world now. One said he had been looking forward to being released and had even written drafts of his resume and practiced what he would say to convince employers to hire him. He thought about career paths he could explore. Then he was released into the world of today and found himself totally bewildered and confused and illiterate. He had no technology experience and found that life had gone on without him. That happened in just 20 years! Think of all of the changes that I have witnessed in my 85 years. There were very few automobiles (that's what they were called) and very few telephones. The telephones were all on party lines and you shared one line with one, two or three neighbors. You answered the phone according to how many rings your line had. One, two, three or four rings accordingly. There were some two party lines but they were more expensive. At first, as I recall, you picked up the receiver and an operator was there to ask: "Number, please?" You gave the number you were calling and she connected you to the person you wanted to reach. In about 1941 I had started dating Doc and I went to London, O. for Christmas celebrations. My grandparents lived back to back and we spent time at one or the other house all day long. Doc tried to call me from Springfield, O. to wish me a Merry Christmas and was overwhelmed by the fact that the operator said when he asked for the number, "I'll try her Grandma Charters first but if she is not there she'll be at her Grandmother Morrissey's. So be patient ." He was totally astonished!

Progress came about and the operators were done away with, (not killed off' just laid off) and replaced by automation, no more personal touches. No more party lines, no more operators, dial phones came to be. No more phones that had receivers separate from the stand up phone with the dial on the base. Princess phones came into being. Good Golly Miss Molly, if your number was filled with 9's or 0's it took forever to dial it. Touch tone phones came along and made life easier. But you were still tethered to the phone line.

I went to Washington, D.C. in 1998 and as we drove around town we all marveled at the people walking along the streets talking on phones! Imagine that ! We heard stories about the rays or whatever going into their brains from these phones and visualized a nation of Sony heads or nuts walking around. ( We were not too far off the mark there, I fear).

It was just a matter of time until we all had our own phones that we could walk around with. I had to buy a special purse to carry mine in because it was so big. I got one so that I could call Doc from school or where ever and he could answer on the portable phone. He thought it was ridiculous and refused to carry it or have anything to do with it! You would have thought it was Witch Craft!

Now everyone has a cell phone and land lines (house hold phones) are becoming obsolete. No more phone booth es. It used to be if you were in the grocery and heard people talking you skirted around them with caution thinking they might be unhinged. Now, when people shout, " Hello!" Don't answer back because you will get some sour looks from your fellow shoppers. Its not so intimidating when you can see the phone they are holding up to their ears but when they have both hands free to choose items off the shelves and are still talking (loudly) about Aunt Opal's confrontation with the po-lice or how wasted they were the night before you do begin to worry. Pay attention to their ears! Those are not hearing aids! Where does it go from here? Do try to look uninterested and ponder your selections seriously because if you stare they might take your picture on their phone camera and later accuse you of eaves dropping.... And our ancestors thought the frontiers were dangerous! Woe betide us. Ciao