Then and Now...

Just about every day, I look back to how things were back when I was teenager.  I wonder if today's kids could even stand living in the world as it was when I was their age.  I remember thinking that we were hot stuff because our econ class was playing a stock market game against kids from high schools all over the US.  We used our good ol' #2 pencils to fill in little ovals on cards with our stock market decisions.  The cards were sent in to some company, who would combine all the cards, feed 'em into a computer, and the computer would spit out the results.  We'd never, ever seen a computer.  I imagine this thing filled up a room and cranked for hours.

Today it's a rare household that doesn't have at least one computer.  At this time, I have four!  We own a Netbook, A 17" Dell Studio laptop, and two Dell towers that I need to revamp someday.  Four computers for two people.  Imagine...

During my junior year, I took typing--not keyboarding.  We had these old Royal manual typewriters.  I have extremely short fingers, and constantly got my fingers stuck between the keys.  That sure slowed down my typing speed and accuracy.  And typing an uppercase A, Q, Z, P, ", and ?  Darned near impossible with my weak little fingers trying to hold down the Shift key.  I still cringe at the term "flying caps".

I signed up for vocational business for my senior year.  When I got into the room for the first time, we were allowed to pick out the electric typewriter we wanted to use for the year.  I ran to the only IBM Selectronic...you know, it had the metal ball with all the letters on it.  I went from typing maybe 20 words a minute to more than 63, and that was after a summer of not typing at all.  I can no longer type on a typewriter--I've gotten too used to keyboards.

One day in Vocational Business, a salesman came in to show us a calculator.  It was the size of a small book and cost $1,000.  But it gave instant results to the most complex division problems.  Our adding machines cranked and cranked before it could spit out the results of a division problem.  Now, the tiniest calculators are given away as freebies, or they just cost a few bucks.  Oh, and then there were the slide rules.  Think a kid today has ever heard of a slide rule?

Most kids have MP3 players.  Songs are downloaded from the Internet.  Can you imagine jogging while carrying a turntable?  I owned a tiny little portable record player that played 45s and 33-1/3s.  It didn't even place the needle.  I had to do that myself.  I played one 45 at a time.  I might have owned 20 of them, and a few LPs.

Every Saturday morning, Mom and I would go to Marsh and I was allowed to select a 45 each week.  I know they cost less than a dollar, and I felt privileged that Mom would buy me one each week.  The first one I chose was Archie Bell and the Drells' "Tighten Up".  (I read later on that he only had the one hit because he was drafted and served in Vietnam.) 

The photo is of me, taking during one Christmas when I was given a Herman's Hermits album.  Mom liked Peter Noone as much as I did.  "Mrs. Brown, you've got a lovely daughter...girls as sharp as her are something rare.  But it's sad.  She doesn't love me now..."  Peter's still a cutie at the ripe old age of 62.  (How can he possibly be that old?)

I also had a Jackson 5 album and later on, my boyfriend bought me a Neil Diamond album "Tap Root Manuscript".  I might have owned three or four LPs, but that was it. (I eventually moved up to an 8-track player when the same boyfriend bought me one for Christmas.  I ended up marrying that guy--he bought good presents.)

Back then, our idea of an electronic game was our battery-operated "Green Ghost" game.  We'd turn out all the lights after we powered up the green ghost with some light.  And we'd play that game for hours.  We loved it.  Now the hot thing is a Wii.  Can you imagine showing kids back in the 60s such a thing?  I remember being amazed at the first Pong game.  I'd probably have passed out if I'd been shown a Wii back then.

If we were out driving and got lost, we'd have to stop and ask directions.  Now we either go to Mapquest, use our iPhone, or we fire up a GPS that communicates with three or four satellites.  (Hey, we did know what a satellite was...we all remember Telstar.)

I was an avid reader then.  I always had a book stuck in my face.  If I was still a reader, I'd have a Kindle stuck in my face and could have entire libraries of books occupying the space of an electronic doodad the size of a small book.

We did a research paper on embalming during my senior year.  We went to different libraries and even a funeral home to glean information for our paper.  It began as a joke, but ended up being a very interesting subject.  Now we could either do our research by Googling, or just cheat and download something that someone else wrote.  I wouldn't even have to leave the comfort of my recliner.

One day Dad brought home a color TV--the kind with the rounded sides.  Very few shows were in color back then, so we watched whatever was in color.  That was mostly the news.  Then Bonanza began showing in color.  The NBC peacock unfurled his tail "in living color".  We barely managed to tune in four channels, and forget watching late night TV.  You'd be watching a test pattern.  Digital cable and satellite have taken over the airways.  We have hundreds of channels, but nothing to watch but informercials.  And now they're coming out with 3D TVs.  What next?  Smellavision?

We owned one phone and it was screwed down to the kitchen wall.  If you wanted to talk on the phone, you sat on a stool in the kitchen.  We couldn't even leave the room, much less jump in the car and take our phone with us.  One month I talked long-distance to my boyfriend so much, it cost me $12!  Outrageous!  Now I don't even have a long-distance carrier.  Don't need one with my cell phone.  We constantly carry a 5,000 minute balance.

It's getting late.  I've got to change into my jammies and strap on the full-face mask connected to the CPAP machine that forces me to breathe all night.  Back then, my insomnia caused me to stay up all night and listen to my dad snoring.  When he stopped breathing, I'd hold my breath until he took another breath.  No one ever heard of sleep apnea.  We had to do our own breathing.

So what are your favorite "then and nows"?