September 16, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. Technology.

I often wonder if the changes that occurred  in the twenty-five years of my Mother and my grandmother's lives from age fifty to seventy-five were as dramatic for them as it has been for me?  Cell phones were just becoming common, in fact we called them car phones when I was fifty.  I did a commercial for Cellular one at the time when the phone companies were trying to find out who was likely to buy their product.  Now every one owns a cell phone and uses them at  every opportunity.    Last December I asked my granddaughter what she wanted for Christmas, and her answer was "A cell phone".  She was seven.   Her mother, Suzanne,  quickly nixed the gift.  

It seems to me that I am always learning a new gadget.  Today both Ken and I purchased a new phone, a regular one for me and a Blackberry for Ken, so now we have a whole new set of instructions to follow.  I bet my grandmother never had to follow these types of instructions.  Not much changed in the early quarter of the century, once electricity came to town.  She never did drive a car and she always had household help, at least when her children were young.  My Mother was my age from about nineteen fifty to nineteen seventy five so many changes were improvements rather than new products.  But for good or ill, in this day and age, the newest gadgets keep coming so every few years I have a new cell phone.  In three days, it will be  old hat, but for now, I am discombobulated.  But I like my new phone.  It is lighter than my old one, which is good and as I do know how to read, soon I will figure it out.  But for the moment, I hate not being able to use my phone.  I would not want to go back in time, even though it is a big nuisance.  I like today and I will persevere!!