We’re in the second week of local high school tack meets in Northern Ohio, and it’s snowing on the violets.
If I go to my grandkids’ meet tomorrow, I’ll put on a down vest and gloves.
I’ll have my BlackBerry to take snapshots, jot notes to myself, maybe voice-record a thought or two.
Oh, and a travel-mug of hot coffee.
But Back in the Old Days…
I remember, as a young track coach’s wife so many years ago, bundling up in heavy winter garb and heading to the track for the annual relays meet our school held every spring.
The tracks were cinder, and often had to be drilled to drain the puddles that collected from rain or slightly melting snow. That pre-dawn job fell to the coaches.
My job — as a willing volunteer — was to type up the race results as they came in, so copies could be made and handed out to participating team coaches at the end of the day.
My now-vintage typewriter was manual, portable, and not connected to anything but my fingers and a hope for accuracy.
My finished pages were rushed into an office to be retyped onto mimeograph sheets and run out on hand-turned machines. The print was purple.
I don’t think of myself as old, but those days were definitely the OLD DAYS! The early 70′s.
It’s not that we didn’t have electricity or batteries; they just didn’t live in typewriters or phones. Nothing electronic was hand-held.
Can you even imagine life…
…before iPhones and Blackberries, before wireless netbooks? Or tiny digital gadgets always connected to the Internet? Before the Internet?
I got my first Blackberry last summer; it’s now outdated by at least two revisions. And my friend in the UK taunts me with all her iPhone can do. She draws on it!
Today the OLD DAYS can date back as far as, what… five years? Maybe two? Six months?
How is technology changing your world, and at what rate?
Do you think it’s any wonder we feel hurried and harried sometimes? Can we run as fast as technology changes? Can our minds?
Sometimes it’s good just to take a coffee break and breathe deeply. Slow down a bit. Assess things… and then, share your thoughts……………….
Barb
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Came by for a bottle of water. I wish I had a blackberry, and I surely do remember the mimeo machine and all that purple ink on my hands – My mum taught first grade and I was her technical guru assistant!
This morning I went to a Medical Intuitive, very old person, very old healing form, and yet got the best read out on what is happening with my physical body I have ever had. Now I must drink lots of water to release the emotions – hmm
I also have 18 pages of cat scans and lab results, but I think I found a better answer? Will test this new idea!
I am going to sit back and think about this for awhile.
Nice post.
Patricia’s last blog post..Opening Day
I’ll just keep water on hand for you. Oh yes, the purple mimeograph papers. I can still smell the toner!
I hope you’re doing well…
There was a time when you could go to school, get a job, maybe switch jobs once or twice, and retire.
The cycle of resource technology change used to be 60 years. Some years ago it was 6.
I think the big shift is from built to last to built to change.
I think the key is to define a quality of life and measure change against it. Drive or be driven.
J.D. Meier’s last blog post..Know and Share Yourself Enough
J.D. your comment is full of insight! Today’s technology is all about change, at an ever-increasing rate of change. Measuring that change against our personal definitions of quality of life seems the only way to survive it. Indeed, grow with it. Thank you.
I recently attended a baby shower, which was attended by several out of town guests, me being one of them. As we cleared the kitchen counter for the food, about 10 cell phones were moved to a nearby bookcase.
A few years ago, no cell phones would have been there, let alone 10. It’s amazing to me how technology has changed our lives.
LisaNewton’s last blog post..A Boy and a Wave
Hi Lisa — yes, it is amazing. Because once we buy into the change, it really does change us. What we didn’t know existed because it didn’t, now is essential to our lives. Or our safety. Or convenience. And sometimes to our fun.
I know I wouldn’t want to ever go back to my old typewriter!
Hi Barb,
Like Lisa, I too think about the cell phone – which has really become a small computer. Now, my kids (in middle school) think they “need” a cell phone. I remember well into my adulthood not even thinking about a cell phone, and of seeing someone with this big bag phone – and thinking I’ll never want that! We’re getting ready to go on vacation – and what’s at the top of the list? All the electronics we’ll “need”…
And yet, often what we really need is some moments away from all of this – some quiet time. Disconnected from the world….which isn’t necessarily easy to do.
P.S. – I had soccer practice start with the team I’m coaching – last night. It was cold and windy – yes, spring sports in the midwest!!!! Good luck to your grandkids at the track meets this spring.
Lance’s last blog post..Sunday Thought For The Day
Brrrrr….. and I wish you well too, Lance. Thanks so much for your thoughts.
How well I remember those days, Barb! I love your comment about not feeling old, yet those days were definitely “the old days”!!! It seems like soooo long ago……gosh, was it really?! New technology is what defines how vastly different our lives have become….but at what price? We all move at an exponentially faster pace today……and have to force ourselves to remember to take the time out to “smell the roses” or turn our cellphones off and write in our journals or call a friend for no special reason….etc., etc., etc.
Hi Neets — it’s time for another phone call, don’t you think? One sister to another. Love you… thanks so much for sharing here.
Great post Barb. Sometimes I wonder what I did with myself. You know, back in the ice age
Sliloh’s last blog post..A.D.D. is a cool disorder to have
Hi Anita — hahahahaha! Yes, don’t we all? And you’re still young!
Hi Barb,
Oh, I also remember the old days, the purple ink and the manual typewriters. Remember when the IBMs came out. What a treat that was.
Although I have a cell phone, I don’t use it much. I keep thinking I NEED a blackberry or iphone, or a netbook or Kindle, but then ask myself, “why?”
In some ways I miss the old days. Looking back, they seemed simple. I kinda miss that.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Give Your Readers What They Want
You know, Barbara, I do wonder if I would get more writing done if I didn’t have all the extras. And I don’t even HAVE all the extras that my kids and grandkids have.
Kindle? I might like that for the access to so much reading material in a small space, but not yet. I love to read. I love the smell of books and the feel of the paper. I love to turn pages. And my eyes like the printed page far better than the lighted screen. I don’t yet think of curling up with a good Kindle…
All these tiny new fangled gadgets are heaven to me. I love them! And yes, I am beginning to have a ball drawing on my iPhone.
I’m sorry to admit that I’m a bit NIMBY (Not in my back yard) about them though. People yelling into their cell phones on buses and trains drive me crazy.
Makes me think of one of Winston Churchill’s remarks at his London HQ. Somebody was talking loudly in an adjoining office. On being told that the reason for this was that the person was talking to New York, Winston said, “Then why the hell doesn’t he use the telephone?”
Valerie Beeby’s last blog post..iPhone hatches Easter chicks
Hi Valerie — I love your stories. I had not heard that one from Churchill. Very funny. What’s also amusing is to sit in the balcony at a dance competition (my granddaughter’s) with only the stage lights on, no flash photography allowed. Then, down below and in front of me there are hundreds of cell phones lit up as the audience talks-by-text to whoever, or play the games on their cell phones… Maybe some are even painting!