Just a thought of our technology.

[alph]

This morning I was in the mood to listen to some music, so I get my “Creative ZEN” MP3 player out, plug in some headphones and select the song that was playing in my head a few moments earlier.

As I sit there enjoying the tunes I think of my father.  He loved music. I think of his life, growing up in Italy in the 30’s + 40’s during a time when you would be happy to just have food to eat. 

I think about how amazing it is to have 54 full albums on a 3”x2” electronic device that also can display the album artwork, song titles, pictures, video’s, has a built in microphone, and an FM radio (but no one listens to that anymore).  In a matter of seconds I can switch from one song, to another on a different album from a different artist.  No more trying to find the CD, getting it out an putting it in a home stereo system, pissing off the wife and kids ‘cause they can’t stand my taste in music.  To be able to just kick back and enjoy my little space in the world. 

I tell you, if you sit back on your deck sometime and just realize how sweet we’ve got it today.  Something as simple as a toilet, or running water in your house.  They don’t have that in some countries today!  No matter how terrible the economy is, we’ve still got it pretty good in America.

Oh, and for those Christmas presents our kids will be opening tonight, or tomorrow, just think, you’ll be storing them in the back closet in just a couple of weeks, then selling them at a garage sale for a few bucks this spring.

MERRY CHRISTMASS EVERYONE!!

[Willow]

Well said, Alph.  Merry Christmas.  We could probably all spend a little more time in gratitude.

[MP]

Agreed.
My dad was born in 1930.  Grew up and lived on the farm I am now on in western ND.  So, not ancient history.

They had no tv, no electricity, no phones, no indoor bathrooms or running water.  He told me about having to warm up the frozen milk in the morning in the winter, so you could pour a glassful or put it on cereal.  His three oldest sisters slept three to one bed, until the eldest left for college!  That would NOT have been a Queen bed, either!

How things have changed.

If you had these conditions today, social services would take all your kids away!

MP

[Michael K (Az.)]

Like MP, my Dad, born in 1919, grew up on a farm outside of Wooster, Ohio and told me he never noticed any more hardships due to the depression than any other time. Grampa ran a tight ship on this working farm so all the kids had the same chores 24/7 no matter what the economic conditions. As he aged, he realized that they kept their entire family members, (city folk), alive due to the bounty from their land.
That wasn't so long ago folks! We're pretty lucky and I don't know about all ya'll but I think I bitch about things too much! Gotta remember the "petty things, sweaty things", mantra.
Everybody have as much fun as you can stand, what ever that may be.
Michael K (out here in Arizona)!!

[Challenger]

I'm 57 years old and the first 8 years of my life were spent on a farm here in Il. with no indoor plumbing or TV, We ate what Dad grew from the garden, Mom made our Christmas gifts from scratch. We did not know we were poor and those were very happy times, I thank God for what I have now, But it made me realize that friends and family are more important than money. I thank everyone on this and other boards for their friendship. Merry Christmas to all  !!

[RP#62]

I'm 55 and I remember back when all we had was black and white TV.  No remote or nothing.  It was tough, but somehow we managed.   My dad was 6 years old when the depression started.  He grew up on a farm in southern Louisiana (Lafourche).  I asked him once if he remembered the depression and he said yeah, thats when everybody else had to live like we did.
-RP

[Michael K (Az.)]

I'm 55 and I remember back when all we had was black and white TV.  No remote or nothing.  It was tough, but somehow we managed.   My dad was 6 years old when the depression started.  He grew up on a farm in southern Louisiana (Lafourche).  I asked him once if he remembered the depression and he said yeah, thats when everybody else had to live like we did.
-RP

 

[JimC]

Alph,
I agree, we have lived in the best of times. I am 56 and I have never been hungry, nor do I know anyone that really has been. We have lived through the most prosperous times in the best country the world has ever seen. I thank God for my family, friends, the freedom that I have been blessed with.

Due to the holiday season I don't want to turn this into a political thread so I will stop there!

Jim
  

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

Dang you all have indoor bathrooms ??????????Snobby rich people 

[John Schmidt]

Are we spoiled? Most definitely.  My dad was born just after the turn of the last century and had some tales to tell re. their time on the old Schmidt farmstead in northern Iowa. As I grew up(adopted at age 2), I can recall many things we didn't have...but we used to joke about having running water and a path. The running water was me...running out to the windmill about 30 yds. from the house and carrying it back in, many times during the day. I hated wash day!!  In the winter I'd wait until the last minute before making a beeline for the outhouse...damn, that was cold. Sometimes it would almost ruin the chances you'd do anything once you got out there. As for electricity, we got that about a year after WWII was over, along with running water. But, the running water was only in a quickly installed bathroom...the commode was the only thing hooked to it. We finally had a cistern installed outside near the kitchen, that took care of the rest of the water needs since we had a small hand pump installed on the sink to make use of the cistern. We were in hog heaven...or at least I was. Still had to heat the water in the reservoir on one end of the big kitchen stove. Some of you oldies will remember stoves like that.

As for heat, I had old Indian blankets for sheets in winter and would put 2-3 bricks on the stove for a short time and put them in the bed. Don't bother to take a glass of water up with you in case you were thirsty during the night...it usually froze. I usually put my clothes in bed with me at night, then get dressed before rolling out. My dad took a new Superintendent position in a small school district in NW Iowa shortly after the war. This house was a mansion....running water in the kitchen and bathroom, and a huge gravity feed furnace, and electricity in every room. Still got pretty cold at night, but at least my water didn't freeze. We also had a phone and a radio that didn't run off a big old battery sitting on a shelf below it.

I think the first TV in the family was in the early 50's, I know it wasn't too long before I graduated from high school.

Now, if I'm too chilly or warm, I just walk to the thermostat and adjust it. Aaaah....the good old days! You can have them, I enjoy being spoiled with our modern conveniences....including our two cars and the Valk. However I'm still trying to convince my wife I need a late 60's-early 70's pickup as a project if I can get one for my price. She has this silly idea the second stall in the garage is for parking her car in.

[Stanley Steamer]

Are we spoiled? Most definitely.  My dad was born just after the turn of the last century and had some tales to tell re. their time on the old Schmidt farmstead in northern Iowa. As I grew up(adopted at age 2), I can recall many things we didn't have...but we used to joke about having running water and a path. The running water was me...running out to the windmill about 30 yds. from the house and carrying it back in, many times during the day. I hated wash day!!  In the winter I'd wait until the last minute before making a beeline for the outhouse...damn, that was cold. Sometimes it would almost ruin the chances you'd do anything once you got out there. As for electricity, we got that about a year after WWII was over, along with running water. But, the running water was only in a quickly installed bathroom...the commode was the only thing hooked to it. We finally had a cistern installed outside near the kitchen, that took care of the rest of the water needs since we had a small hand pump installed on the sink to make use of the cistern. We were in hog heaven...or at least I was. Still had to heat the water in the reservoir on one end of the big kitchen stove. Some of you oldies will remember stoves like that.

As for heat, I had old Indian blankets for sheets in winter and would put 2-3 bricks on the stove for a short time and put them in the bed. Don't bother to take a glass of water up with you in case you were thirsty during the night...it usually froze. I usually put my clothes in bed with me at night, then get dressed before rolling out. My dad took a new Superintendent position in a small school district in NW Iowa shortly after the war. This house was a mansion....running water in the kitchen and bathroom, and a huge gravity feed furnace, and electricity in every room. Still got pretty cold at night, but at least my water didn't freeze. We also had a phone and a radio that didn't run off a big old battery sitting on a shelf below it.

I think the first TV in the family was in the early 50's, I know it wasn't too long before I graduated from high school.

Now, if I'm too chilly or warm, I just walk to the thermostat and adjust it. Aaaah....the good old days! You can have them, I enjoy being spoiled with our modern conveniences....including our two cars and the Valk. However I'm still trying to convince my wife I need a late 60's-early 70's pickup as a project if I can get one for my price. She has this silly idea the second stall in the garage is for parking her car in.

We had "gravity" water.....a black plastic water pipe ran downhill from a spring and emptied into a large concrete 'cistern" sitting on a bank on a hill about 10 feet above floor level of the house....Daddy kept a half a sheet of plywood over the top of that to keep leaves and animals out of it, but it didnt stop the lizards and salamanders..... ......from there, it ran down the hill and up into the house.....in the winter time it often froze up even though we'd leave it running a little bit at night....we kept a bunch of gallon jugs in the back room that we had to fill up from the cistern, usually after knocking the ice off the top(thing sat exposed on top of the ground)...Yes, it gets pretty cold in extreme North Eastern GA in the winter...all the way down to 0 degrees a few times and down to -5F in 1982......

There wasn't enough water pressure to run the shower and it didn't matter since we didn't have a water heater because of the lack of pressure....we didn't get a water heater until about '84-'85 when we got a remodel of the house through a Govt. program..we still didn't get to use it until the City installed water meters a few years later...I remember my Mama having to heat water and give my Brother and I a bath in one of those big galvanized tubs when we were small...I remember washing my hair in the kitchen sink one time with cold water in the winter time...makes my scalp cring to this day!!....

.....we did have an electric stove for cooking, but we used 2 wood heaters to heat the house and cook on it if the power went out due to ice or snow....I always told myself if I ever got a house with heating and air, I'd NEVER burn wood again....my Brother and I spent many a Fall helping Daddy cut loads of wood to get us through the winter for RC colas and Moonpies.....we've been in this house here since '95 with a super duper fireplace ,and I've NEVER built a fire in it!!...