Technology Has Changed in My Lifetime

As telephones get more and more advanced I often reflect on how they have changed since I was a child.

I remember when the princess phone was introduced. It came in so many colors and was such a modern shape. The black desk phone was replaced and I actually got a phone of my own in my room. Not long after the rotary dial was replaced by push buttons and again it seemed amazing. But you had to get all of you phones from AT&T and an installer had to come to your home.

But one day, when I was in the car with my parents, I was on my way to have my tonsils removed. We were driving along Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn and Dad drove into a pot hole and the car wouldn't start. We all became very anxious because I was going to be late for my surgery. And I said "What we need is a phone in the car!" We all laughed at the thought of people jumping over the phone wires that would be plugged in somewhere. It was a very funny picture. It never dawned on us that in my lifetime a phone would exist that was not connected to anything and could easily be used in the car.

My father was a reporter for the New York Times and waited by the phone for his assignments. He couldn't leave the house for fear of missing a call. Today he could go anywhere and be doing anything and not miss any important call at all.

Thinking of Dad, I remember the Remington typewriter he used. He typed very fast and sometimes it almost seemed to rise off the desk. When he wrote his books the pages were in neat stacks on his desk. He never ever saw a computer.

Mom went back to work when I was a senior in High School. She hadn't typed in years and she practiced a lot before going out to find a job. They did typing tests then and counted the mistakes. There certainly was no such thing as spell check. Are white-out companies still in business?

And I can't forget our first color television. The colors were mostly green and brown and Mom insisted they would never be better. Then one day, for the very first time, I saw the NBC peacock in full color. OMG! A moment I will never forget. Yesterday I was in a store looking at 3D TV. My, how things have changed all in my lifetime.