I was fanning the paper to put in my copier, and suddenly it hit me how much things have changed since my grandparents were alive. No one had copiers, much less a copier in their home. And ‘fanning’ often involved a lovely ladies’ accessory used to send a message to that special gentleman.
It’s fun and rather amazing to think of how many things we take for granted such as ‘a personal copier’ that would be surprising to a few generations ago. So, for your enjoyment, here is my listing of a few of them:
- The need to ‘Reboot’. It has nothing to do with your feet.
- ‘Fast food’ doesn’t mean your mom was cooking in a hurry.
- ‘Butt dials’. They can’t happen on a rotary phones- unless you have a very strange talent.
- ‘Post-Its’ have nothing to do with the Postal Service.
- Facebook isn’t a book about faces.
- In-home printers. Nope, it’s not the kindergarteners working on their homework, carefully printing their alphabet.
- Taking pictures with your phone. I chuckle when I think of how that might have worked with the old very heavy rotary phones. Hmmm.
- ‘Fanning’ the copy paper.
- Don’t use your ‘Kindle’ to start a fire. Find something else for kindling.
- ‘Autocorrecting’ doesn’t require an auto mechanic.
- You can start your car without inserting the key. And it hasn’t been hotwired.
- Cell phones have nothing to do with jails.
- You can make a phone call in your new place immediately – without the phone company’s physical presence wiring your home.
- Social media: You used to talk to your neighbors, listen to the radio, and read the newspapers to find out what was happening.
- You need ‘Passwords” for almost everything financial. And it’s best if they are completely different. But back in the day, you only needed one: the ‘password’ you and your friends would use for entry into the tree house.
Isn’t it amazing to think how much our lives have changed in just a few generations? As an example, my dad, who loved to fly, was born one month after the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. He died the year Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. In just his lifetime, there was that much change. It astounds me. So now, you get to have some fun noticing what you think might surprise our grandparents or great-grandparents!
