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| Source: Photos Public Domain |
It amazes me how today’s world is so different from the world I grew up in. So many little things I remember from growing up don’t even exist anymore.
Most of the changes that I actually notice are in technology. When I sit at home helping my little brother with the Internet, I tell him that, when I was his age, we had just started getting Internet. When I grew up, I learned to use DOS mode computers, where you had to type in computer code on a black screen in order to call up programs. Those programs can’t even compare to those of today. I didn’t even have Microsoft Word until fourth grade. At that time, I thought the Internet and all these cool programs for Windows were amazing. I could never imagine technology would improve so much, especially in my lifetime.
Now, DSL high-speed Internet connections are almost a necessity and not so much a luxury anymore. Places like McDonald’s and Baker’s Square even offer free Wifi for people to use on their smart phones and laptops, another creation that I never imagined when I was little.
Does anyone remember phone cards? My grandmother has always been very benevolent, and on many different occasions throughout the year, she would dote upon my cousins and I. In my eyes, the definition of being one of the big kids in the family was receiving a phone card from my grandmother on such occasions. My older cousins, who were in junior high and high school, would use them as money to make calls on payphones. From my point of view, this meant that they were old enough to be away from their parents and out socializing with the need to use a public phone. I remember I couldn’t wait to be grown-up enough to receive a phone card, mostly because I felt that would make me a member of the clique that was five of my six older cousins. However, by the time I reached that age group, I already had a cell phone, because of which I’ve suffered multiple “when I was your age” stories from my older cousins.
What about payphones? Whenever I see one, I'm, OMG I haven’t seen one of those in years! Payphones used to be everywhere. I remember going to the airport and seeing rows and rows of them. Now, I can hardly find any. My high school used to have some for students to use to call their parents or employers at lunch, but by the time I was a junior in high school, they were gone. Now if you’re out and about, you better hope you have enough phone minutes or battery life, because there’s not backup option beyond asking someone if you can use their cell phone.
Also along those same lines is collect calling. I have never placed or received a collect call, and I wonder if those even exist anymore. I would assume that if you’re calling from a landline or cell phone anywhere in the continental U.S., your call is already paid for (or will be paid for when the bill comes). My older cousins used collect calling though. My cousin Andy told me that “the way” to do it was to say your name was “HeyMomPickMeUp,” so that your parents knew soccer practice was over without having to accept the charges. Nowadays, I’m thinking kids only know about collect calls from that one episode of Robot Chicken, in which Darth Vader calls Emperor Palpatine after the first Death Star blew up.
I’m totally grateful that the world has progressed so much, at least technology-wise. As I type this to you, I can’t even imagine what new inventions will come next. That’s part of the excitement of the future, and “that’s what they call progress, dear.”
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
And tomorrow is just a dream away
Man has a dream, and that’s the start
He follows his dream with mind and heart
And when it becomes a reality
It’s a dream come true for you and me
So there’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow
Just a dream away.
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| Source: Meet the Robinsons |
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