I was washing my hands after doing some work today and noticed that the stuff I use is liquid soap, berry scented, picked up for me by a lady friend. I enjoyed the fragrance and started thinking about how, as a kid, we never had anything like that.
Then I started thinking about all of the things we did not have when I was a kid and realized just how far we’ve come in what seems like a few years. I still pondered this as I finished and wandered around. I used to read a lot of history and it would be like 50 years between making a black powder rifle and any major improvements to it, or discovering phosphorous sticks as matches and 60 years later making the familiar strike anywhere, wooden matches. It took almost 100 years from the reinvention of the printing press to coming up with something better for mass production. Look how long it took to go from ballooning to powered flight.
I was born in the 50s. (I’m not that ancient, so no comments. I’ve seen a lot of changes. When I think about them, they seem to be an enormous amount.
I recall when safety belts came in, padded dashboards, piston rings, air conditioning first in businesses, like the movie house, then department stores, homes and, finally, cars. I recall the invention of radial tires, steel belted tires, and, even tubeless tires! I recall my Pop hammering at a tire on the ground with a pry bar and sledge hammer, to pop it off of the rim and repair the tube inside.
I recall when most air travel was by turboprop, with the 747 being a dream yet. Television was in black and white and shows limited. TV went off of the air at 1 in the morning and came back on at 6. There was no cable and no HBO, STARZ, CINIMAX, or X, XX, XXX rated films. We used real film in hand wound movie cameras, big projectors to play the reels back, or slides were made for slide shows. Coke and all sodas came in bottles, which were recycled. (5 cent deposit on each bottle).
I’ve seen the introduction of the pop tab, then the current pop top, along with drinks in cans and plastic, the removal of the aluminum wrap and trays in TV dinners, the major introduction of margarine, cigarettes go from being good for you and selling at 25 cents a pack, to virtually being hell spawn and costing $2.25 a pack.
In came jet passenger aircraft, the catalytic converter, color TV, low calorie meals, fat free foods, better beef, Lays Chips, Wise Chips, Planters Roasted Nuts, several varieties of milk by different companies, skimmed milk, lactose free milk, milk that is virtually colored water, milk in a box and powdered milk.
Cars lost their fins, great chrome grills, got more powerful, and power steering and automatic transmissions were installed, along with the new fracture windows, carburetors, computers, radios, CD players, tape decks, stereos and fuel injection.
I saw the arrival of the Beatles and the English Invasion. I watched vynal records go from 98 cents for 2 songs to albums only for $6 and then to $8 and now CDs for $16. I recall CDs coming into the market.
I’ve seen the introduction of the following:
VCRs
Hand crank adding machines.
Electric adding machines with tape – weight: 5 pounds and up.
Telephones in every house. (The phone company often did not have lines out to all of the homes.)
Push button phones.
Digital phones.
Wireless phones.
Cell phones.
Internet ready cell phones.
The entire space race.
The first home computers – without Microsoft, which made things a real nightmare.
The introduction of Microsoft.
The first computer games.
The first lap tops.
The first video games.
The first color monitors.
The first Internet connections.
The first web.
Well over 1500 new medications, including over the counter ones.
The removal of opium based over the counter medications.
The introduction of designer illegal drugs.
Tremendous advances in surgery! Instead of a 10 inch appendectomy scar, now there is a 1 inch poke, instead of virtually disemboweling the male patient to remove his prostate, it can often be done by probe with a small incision, saw the first arterial heart grafts, the first heart transplants, the first devices used to remove plaque in the arteries, the first limb transplants, and huge steps in microsurgery.
I’ve seen advances in;
Psychology
education,
civil rights
international communication,
ecology,
recycling,
food production,
historical documentation,
scuba diving,
sports,
laws,
freedom of speech,
racism,
building construction,
and much, much more.
Do you realize just how much we have advanced since the 1950s? I can list pages more, but then you’d all get bored.
I’m using a generic computer, old, second hand which is light years ahead of my original Commodor64, with no hard drive and two floppies and using the internet! I can talk to people around the world! I can get images from places I never dreamed of. I can watch comcam pictures from hundreds of real time sites, and discuss differences with people of all ethnic varieties, nationalities and world views!!
I can order goods via computer and have them delivered, download thousands of free programs where once there were like 50 programs, many of which would not work on my system and you had to buy the disk.
Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, the changes have actually been astounding, more than any other time in history, faster than any other time, and the pretty much isolated world is now a community!
Thinking about it boggles my mind.
Instead of thick, glass lenses in my glasses, I have plastic ones, scratch proofed! That was unheard of in the 60s! Plus, UV coated! I though CBs in cars were the best thing since canned peas, but now there are GPS, cell phones and Internet computers, video players, great stereo systems, and climate control!
My cloths used to be all cotton. Now, my cloths are a synthetic blend, and cotton, which used to be for po’ folks has now risen to the status of ‘casual wealthy.’!
Imagine that?
Polyester with it’s shimmer and shine to me was almost magical! Never had we material aside from silk, which I found coarse, to look so 21st Century, so inexpensive, so smooth to the touch! (And so flammable, but those were different times.)
I dug up my old Cub Scout uniform and it is of heavy, dyed cotton. The new scout uniforms are lighter, more durable blends.
I wonder, how many of you ‘youngsters’ out there actually realize just how far we’ve come since the 50s?
We had no microwaves, no microwave foods, no packaged Jell-O, no yogurt in a tube, pop rocks, Twizzlers, Bubble Yum, Bryers Ice Cream, packaged pizza, toaster strudel, Eggos, plastic milk containers, toothpaste tubes were lead foil, no pads with wings, jell, super-absorbant, scented, sized or self stick. (Women wore sanitary belts.) No electric wheelchairs, no CATSCAN, no PETSCAN, no outpatient surgery, no Reeboks, no computer designed shoes, no super golf clubs and only two types of golf balls. (You golfers have got it real easy now.)
No extreme sports, no bungy cords, no snowboards, no skateboards, and they had just introduced the European designed multi-geared bike!! They called it a ‘racer.’ Ours were all single speed with fat tires!
Think about all you’ve now got, that we pretty much take for granted.
I even recall when Tupperware appeared! (Loved that stuff!)
