I went bowling the other day. It just isn't the same as when I was growing up. I actually had to keep score. I wonder how many kids today would know how to do that.
A few years ago, I remember we had a power outage that lasted a few days. Several stores were closed. because they couldn't use their cash register and credit card machines. Did we forget how to add? Did we forget how to write? I had a business. I also had a cash drawer, pencil and paper to add, subtract and multiply, and credit card slips. Do you remember them? Manual credit card slips! My phone was even working because it wasn't cordless! Speaking of phones, when was the last time you had to actually "dial" a number on a telephone? If you dialed a number wrong, you had to start all over again. I don't think my kids ever saw a telephone with a dial on it. I will reiterate if the electric did go out, your phone still worked.
Have you gotten up to change the station on your TV lately? We had a remote control. It was wired and only about 4 feet long. It didn't do much good. Now I have 4 wireless remotes with so many buttons on them, I think they belonged on the starship enterprise! (If only I could use one of them to get me a glass of Pepsi right now). With today's technology, you don't even have to leave your house to rent a movie or even load your DVD player. Just a few clicks with a keyboard, mouse or remote and you have instant access. I, on the other hand, remember having to remove the VCR tape from the VCR, move it to another device to rewind the tape and then put it away. Of course, you don't have to be home anymore to watch movies. They are available for download with a simple touch to your iPod or other various smart phone devices.
Speaking of leaving home, how many can still read a map? How many people have ever seen a map? You know what I'm talking about. It comes folded in 28 million different ways, about a yard long and wide. It has a ton of lines on it with all kinds of numbers and dots. These were replaced with GPS's, smart phones and internet maps. The best thing about a paper map (other than finding the destination) was getting it to fold back the way it came. Now that was using brain power!
Today's brain power consists of going to a search engine and typing a word to get your information. When is the last time you went to the library to look up an article in a periodical or an encyclopedia? Do they even make encyclopedias now? Does anybody really own a dictionary? Are there any libraries anymore?
After all, who needs books? We have the iPad, Nook and Kindle. Are we that lazy that we don't want to turn a page anymore?
With such a high tech society, I hope the power never goes out. We would be lost without it. But if it does go out, I certainly hope its not until summer. It's too much work to build a fire in my fire pit. Besides I'm having too much fun playing on my Xbox, Playstation and WII while watching a movie through the internet and ordering pizza online via credit card to be delivered. I knew I could get that Pepsi brought to me. Now only if my cat would answer the door and bring me my food. Then I would never have to leave the couch!
