Oh My, How Things Have Changed

I don't consider myself very old, though I often refer to myself as such. Schoolchildren look younger every year.

I teach an online beginners writing class. My students range from teenagers, usually ESL students, to young mothers wanting to brush up on grammar, to grandmothers that want to learn proper form.

It is because of these younger students that I have started looking back on my life and the changes I have watched come into play.

One young student recently commented on the vulgarities of racism in early literature. I was reminded of a trip to the south as a youngster. My mother, brother and I were walking down the street. In the distance came two African American men. Before these men came too near us, they crossed the street. Intrigued, I asked my mother why they had done that. She explained to me that in the south, people "of color" were not allowed to approach white women!

I was very young, but recall beginning to make note of my surroundings. Two drinking fountains standing side by side, one marked "coloreds", public restrooms with signs on the door, No Negroes. Even at that young age, probably around four years old, I remember feeling the absurdity of the situation.

Though I know racism is still alive and well, I take comfort in knowing that my children are oblivious to so much. They have never, for instance, lived in a time when a person, because of ethnicity, was required to ride in the back of the bus. To them, people are just people.

Another talented young student recently wrote a short story as an assignment using the Who of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas as a subject bringing the old Who's on First shtick back to life in a similar discussion with her sister. This young writer is certainly too young to have seen the original Abbott and Costello. Of course, it is possible she has seen her grandparents movie or even something on cable TV. Yet, it makes me wonder if history spontaneously repeats itself.

Cable TV, High Definition Television, DVD and Blue Ray are almost outside of my realm of understanding. Television was relatively new in households when I was growing up. We had all of two channels to watch, not hundreds upon hundreds. Luckily, Howdy Doody came on one of them. Going to the movies was a big deal. There was no sign of Evan Almighty, though I do remember seeing The Ten Commandments. For the most part "motion pictures" were more of a source of news and education rather than entertainment. Then one day under the heaviness of the Cold War, there came the light heartedness of The Thing, Godzilla, and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Movies would never be the same.

As I read AC Producer Pat Veretto article on staying cool, another childhood trip to the south inched its way into my mind. As Ms. Veretto points out in her article, there was a time when only very expensive cars had air conditioning. I remember when that air conditioning came in the form of a box of ice with a fan on top. This may sound simple in this day when electric converters are available at any Radio Shack or Wal-Mart in the country. However, back then running a fan in a car was not such a simplified matter. The deeper into the south we drove, the more frequently we had to replace the ice in the box. I sit here with a smile remembering my dad giving up on the whole idea, as it became more trouble than it was worth to keep buying ice.

Cars get smaller every year and trucks get bigger. That car, in which we made that ice and fan cooled trip to the south, had wings. The automotive industry referred to them as "fins", yet aircraft inspired the design. Sounds like wings to me. One thing that has not changed is cars still roll. We were all certain that by now, everyone would have cars that flew and we would all be planet hopping for vacation.

It was a big deal when John Glenn piloted the Friendship 7 Spacecraft and became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969. I can still hear his words ringing in my ears, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Now space missions are so commonplace they barely rate mentioning in the news. Perhaps planet hopping vacations are still on the horizon.

As my young students, eager to learn bring these discussions into classes, I can only wonder at what they will find to call "old news" someday. What will make them pause to remember?