I was recently thinking about all of the changes that have occurred in my lifetime and I began to feel a bit old for the very first time. I remember once having a conversation with my grandfather during which he spoke of what his life had been like as a young boy. His remembrances made him sound absolutely ancient. He had grown up without plumbing, electricity, glass on the windows of his home. I took all of these modern conveniences for granted and try as I may I was unable to fathom what his youth must have been like. Now I catch myself thinking about all of the things that are readily available today that were not even thoughts in our imaginations when I was a girl.

The biggest thing that comes to mind is the computer. It has so revolutionized the way that we operate but even as late as when I was in college the idea of an affordable home computer that did something note worthy was still several years away. When Mike and I finally did purchase our first computer it was a Radio Shack model with a tape deck drive. It showed everything on a screen with varying shades of black, gray, and green. It wasn’t particularly useful and I remember thinking that Mike had lost his mind for purchasing the thing at what was then an exorbitant price.

Eventually we worked our way up to an Apple IIe with two floppy disk drives. That one was a bit more to my liking. In fact it had been a Christmas present for me. That was back in the day when Apple computers were considered to be mostly useful to students. The PC ruled. Mike was being kind in purchasing the Apple model for me and I loved it even though it was still light years away from doing much that would lighten my workload. Over time we broke down and joined the PC crowd but and suddenly had the capabilities for writing papers, playing games, and bookkeeping.

Mike became quite good at manipulating the computer programs rather quickly. I was the first in my school to have a computerized grade book program that he had personally devised for me. I had to get special permission to submit my grades on a hardcopy of the electronic data. It was really slick and saved me hours of keying in numbers on a calculator and then writing averages in a book. The accuracy was amazing and I could keep my students updated on their progress on a weekly basis. It even automatically created letters to parents for those students who were failing.

About the time that I was completing my master’s degree I remember learning about this strange concept called the Internet. One of my assignments was to create an email account and then send a message to the professor. That little trick became quite handy when an auditor insisted that I did not have enough credits to graduate unless I completed an independent study during the month of July. Unfortunately I had to get an okay to do so from one of my professors but they were all gone for a summer break. I remembered the teacher who had asked us to send him an email and I dashed off a message outlining my dilemma. He not only agreed to be my sponsor for the independent study but did all of the necessary paperwork for me without ever leaving his home office. I was off and running with the modern world.

Of course things have escalated since then. My cell phone has more power than my first three home computers combined. I order most of my gifts for friends and family online. I visit with people that I haven’t seen for years via Facebook. I send texts, use Skype and Face Time, and arrange for trips with Expedia. In fact it seems as though the world is at my fingertips and that it has no limits because of technology.

As a kid we had a single black and white television in our home. I recall hearing that the television show Bonanza was the first to be filmed in color. I never saw it that way because my mother and brothers were still watching everything in black and white long after I had left home to get married. As a matter of fact, Mike and I took his parents old television with us when we set up a household and it too showed programs in only black and white. Back then there were four stations, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. If there was nothing to like on one of them then we were just out of luck. The situation stayed that way for decades into my adulthood.

I remember seeing cable television for the first time at the home of a friend of a friend. She was watching CNN and I thought that it was absolutely silly to think that anyone would want to watch a twenty four hour news station. That shows what I know! In fact, I am pretty much a junkie of that kind of programming these days. Still, sometimes I get overwhelmed by the number of choices that I have and long for the days when it was a whole lot easier to decide what to watch.

I drove to a graduation in Austin the other day and was reminded of how travel used to be. Everyone carried maps of cities and states. It was somewhat difficult to drive and attempt to find an unknown place and still manage to be safe. Now I simply ask Siri to show me the way and I sit back, turn on my cruise control and enjoy the scenery without stress. My car is air conditioned, my radio is in stereo, and I know that there will be multiple places to make a rest stop along the way. It’s not like those days of old with the windows down and the hot air blowing inside the car while someone juggled with a paper map and a kid like me was bouncing up and down without a seatbelt in the back seat. I wonder sometimes how we all survived.

When I first began teaching everyone got a box of chalk, two erasers, a grade book, a lesson planning book, and an attendance ledger on the first day. Those attendance books were like an accounting project. All of the rows and columns had to add up the same or it was time to go over every figure with a fine tooth comb. Keeping up with all of those different books was a chore and woe to the teacher who lost one of them. A favorite past time of students intent on revenge was to get their hands on one of them and hide them. Chaos usually ensued. Now teachers are equipped with Smart boards, laptops, whiteboards, and a host of other gizmos that make their lives incredibly easy compared to days of old. I wonder how many old timers like me remember the smell of mimeograph fluid or the exotic aroma of dust in the air?

I sit each day typing away on a laptop more powerful than the huge machines used to help guide astronauts to the moon and back. I rarely break a sweat except for those times when hot flashes from out of control hormones take over my body like some alien possession. Otherwise my home is always as cool and comfortable as a fine day in April. I have machines doing so much of my work from washing and drying my clothes to cooking my food in half the time that it once took. I’ve had a robot vacuuming and mopping my floors and a blender making me smoothies as good as the ones at the mall. In fact there is so much available to me now that didn’t even exist when I was young that I do indeed feel like my grandpa must have felt when he marveled at all of the inventions that had come into being during his lifetime. I am in awe of the innovative abilities of mankind. It seems that someone somewhere is continually coming up with the next great idea. Sometimes I have a difficult time keeping up with all of the inventions.

These are in fact quite amazing times. The acceleration of change is mind blowing and for the most part it is good. We sometimes want to cling to the past but if we did all of us would be living in uncooled houses with no glass on the windows. Our mail would still be delivered by snails and our entertainment would only be available live. We really would miss so very much. I for one can’t wait to see what comes next.