Change

I didn't intend to be one of those adults who talks about the olden days. The five mile walk to school, uphill both ways, through twelve feet of snow, even in August. Perhaps it's inevitable though. Every time I hear 'there's an app for that', I cringe. I remember when we didn't have apps, didn't know what an 'app' was. An application was a piece of paper you filled out. There were employment applications, college applications, and loan applications (I am probably forgetting some). Cell phones were something you had in case of an emergency. Mom got me a cell phone when I started driving. It looked like a regular phone, except the buttons were on the back of the handset- so that you could dial while you were driving. It had a cradle, just like the phones at home. It was in a zippered bag, so that you could easily carry it with you (because of course, cell phones in 1992 did NOT fit in your purse). It was there in case I needed it, even though most of the places I traveled in our valley did not have cell service (and still do not, even in 2010-although they are working to improve that).

The latest incarnation of my cell phone fits into an inside pocket of my purse. In fact, if I do not put it back in that pocket, it gets lost in the depths of my purse; causing me to pull all the contents out of my purse when I need it. I have two pair of glasses to wear thanks to an astigmatism, so I have a deep purse. It's called a 'hobo'. Definitely bigger than most women my age would carry, but those cute little purses just don't cut it. On the plus side, I can hide a bottle of water in it, or my camera.

But even my tiny phone is pretty basic. I don't have an IPhone, or a Droid. I don't see the need for one. Yes, I'm a facebook addict, and there are times- such as the unexpected hour long wait to get my allergy shot today, when it would have been nice to play around on facebook; but I think there are times I need to disconnect. Sit back and knit, or listen to my music, or just veg. I don't feel I need to be connected to other people 24 hours a day. So my phone has no 'apps'. And I like it that way.

Music has changed a lot too. When I bought my Rav4 four years ago, it came with an MP3 hookup. Great! I didn't have an MP3 player, but a few months later I did. (No it's not an ipod either. It's just a generic MP3 player). It is about the size of a business card. During one of my recent trips home, my Aunt saw it and asked what it was. I was explaining it to her, and she couldn't understand how I had 16 hours of music on this little thing. We used to make fun of my parents for listening to records, and before that 8 tracks. Sydney doesn't know how to operate a boom box. I don't know that she's ever seen a cassette tape. Cassette tapes were the soundtrack of my childhood. The other night we were watching an old Jeff Foxworthy special, and we realized how old it was as he talked about always losing cassette tape holders. We started switching to CDs when I was in high school. I remember how expensive they were at first, and you had to have the special CD player. So now it wasn't enough to have a boom box with a dual tape deck and detachable speakers. It had to have a built-in CD player too. About ten years ago, the cool thing was to use Napster. Before all the licensing issues, Napster was free. I don't know if Napster is even still around. It was incredible that you could find any type of music from your computer. I still have CD's full of music I downloaded. I have then 'ripped' this music from the CDs onto my MP3. Another generation won't know what a CD is. And in another couple of generations, MP3 players will go the way of Walkmans and jukeboxes.

When I think of how technology has changed our world, I think of my Grandma Wager. Mom & her sister both worked in banks- mom in NY, and Aunt Arlene in FL. The two different banks they worked for were some of the first to issue ATM cards, and then that advanced to Debit Cards. I've had a Debit Card since I was about 16; when I went to college they were still a novelty and we went to a couple of banks before we found one that offered them. The banks would often let their employees test new things first, so mom & her sister had ATM cards before most people. I remember we were visiting Grandma & Grandpa in Florida, and Mom had to get money out of her account. In the past, this meant writing a check to either Grandma or my Aunt, and then they would cash it and give mom the money. Mom told Grandma to just pull up to the ATM. Grandma didn't understand how a brick wall could give you money. At the time we thought Grandma was so out of it. But the older I get, the more out of it I feel.