I found myself fascinated watching Addie use the phone. They had downloaded a kids' game "app" that Addie was enjoying. I was dumbfounded as I watched her little thumbs fly. At one point she got very serious and said to me "Grandma, I wrecked! I got wet! I have a boo-boo!!" At first I wasn't certain whether she was referring to her game or to some recent real-life event. (I was reassured by her mom that it was the game...). The game kept her occupied not only for our wait to be seated, but at the table after we ordered. She was quiet, polite and in general, the perfect little girl for those around her!
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| No photos available from the restaurant... Grandma didn't bring her camera and doesn't have a smart phone! This one was taken at Christmas of Addison munching a Christmas cookie... |
I have been thinking about this, especially in terms of how technology has changed our lives in so many unexpected ways (that I am writing to an unknown public here is one of them!) How news is delivered, how we communicate with one another, how we navigate our cars, how we can get information on just about anything... Our world has changed in ways never thought possible thirty or forty years ago...
Back in the early 1970's on the University of Michigan main campus, there was a little old building tucked in a corner along the path to my dorm. It was the "Computer Lab" and was off limits to most undergraduates. Engineering students could take computer classes, but the rest of us were not allowed inside the building. The computers in there were so expensive and rare that access had to be limited for security reasons (even back then there were security issues!) I had a friend in the "Engine" school who used to carry stacks of computer programming cards around with him, in order to run the program he had spent hours punching those cards for. One mistake on one card or one card out of order and the whole thing would crash... so he wouldn't allow us to touch them.
Back then, to do research for a paper meant multiple trips to the library, with notebook or notecards in hand. To talk to my mother required a long-distance phone call that cost money, and if no one was home, there was no way to leave any message. To communicate with my room mate during the summer meant letters that took at least 3 days to get to her. If I had car trouble, I had to hike to the closest pay phone or hope a state trooper or county sheriff happened by. If I got sick with something odd, my physician relied on his 30 year old training and perhaps his journals to diagnosis it-- or he referred me to a large medical center where I had to take my paper records with me to the appointment. Photography required bulky cameras, expensive film and even more expensive developing. You didn't know what you had until you got the pictures back. And children in restaurants were given crayons to doodle with and hushed if they were too impatient.
Addie's father was born in the early 1980's, when home computers were just in the earliest stages of use and couldn't do much other than produce "Pong" games. How times have changed! It makes me wonder what Addie's children will be doing in restaurants to keep busy while waiting... I know it will be something we can only barely imagine now.
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| Again, no photos of Addie with computers, but here is 2 year old Sam helping his dad with his! |
And, just in case you were wondering, while Addie loves to play on her mom's smart phone and her dad's computer, she also enjoys splashing in puddles, chasing Siggy the Schnauzer, and throwing rocks in the creek behind Grandma Barb's house... at least somethings never change!!!
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| Addie with a decidedly un-techy activity-- Play dough!! |
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| Addie and Siggy playing in a Christmas gift - a tent/tunnel! |
My son, Zach bought his first computer at a garage sale he passed on the way home from the school bus. He came home panting wanting some cash to borrow he said. $5.00 for a heavy suit-case model in '92 or '93. You should have seen him struggle to carry it home. He was ecstatic!
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