February 24th, 64 years later

Birthdays are a day of reflection aren't they. I'm not going to reel back through the years; that's just not done after this many years and in one blog. I do the reflection thing on a daily basis. If I waited to do it on Feb.24th, I'm afraid all I might remember would be the day before.

Have I arrived at old age yet or am I still in the middle? I once had a niece that said "you're not old, you're in the middle".  I think she was being kind.

From being born into this world in the year of 1949, I do often list the changes that I've witnessed in this lifetime.

Who could have predicted the Internet when many people were just experiencing the invention of the television. We thought that was the most awesome thing we had seen. Our grandmother had the first TV in our family and everything was broadcast in black and white. Party lines for telephones where you waited your turn to make a phone call. Heavy clunky rotary phones with a receivor that anchored you to one spot while in conversation to whomever you were calling. I thought when the cordless phone arrived, we had shot right to the top of technology. I loved the cordless phone. You can imagine how impressed I was with the cell phone. What? Cordless and wireless? My husband carried a cell phone in the early days. The company he worked for supplied them. When you saw someone using a cell phone it was usually someone on  the job. Years passed and suddenly everyone was carrying a cell. They went from weighing pounds to weighing ounces then they became a sort of status symbol. It wasn't that you HAD one because by this time everyone did, but it was what KIND you had.

Amongst all this hooray about cell phones, the Internet swooped down and engulfed us. How did I live without the Internet? I envy the school children today from kindergarten through college, a computer is available to them for their research. I had to go sit in a library. Card catalogs were my search engine. Microfiche  on those big clunky machines that advanced page by page previously scanned and archive were somewhat parallel to what became known in an upgraded version as a floppy. I am grateful I got to experience the library. It might not have been as convenient as logging onto the internet but I have such wonderful sensory memories along as visual of treading on those oil stained wooden floors that emitted their own perfume; the books, some old, that had that certain musky smell or the smell of new books, the print ink and the new pages with their special odor. Awed by the bookcases that seem to tower to the ceilings in these old building, I would gather some books off the shelves and find a table to fan them out around me and gorge on them for hours and hours and all for the NO price of a library card. The best deal in town.

Technology is my friend. I'm excited to see what is on the horizon and in awe of those creators. Jobs and Gates are my heroes. Sometimes I feel as though I've stepped into a wind tunnel that has projected me forward, swooshing so fast through it that there should be some sort of explosion waiting. It's been that sort of advancement in my lifetime that awes me. Had I been born at the start of this, I would have surely been a geeky techie.

The husband is a gadget person also. We shared the discoveries among ourselves. "Hey, look at this! Look what I found."

It's usually a new program that does some specific chore.

The iPad and the Apps that were made for it is our latest toy; the new iPhone another.

I can appreciate all these wonderful things I have witnessed and I can be thankful for the caring husband, the only child who I love dearly and the three healthy grandchildren that I get to share my life with.

So on this day, I do a lot of reflection on where I have been and what else interesting the future holds. There is so much to be excited about. What's next? I'm waiting!