I don't have a cell phone. Never have. I won't say never will. I would say 90+ percent of Americans have a cell phone. And, most of them are on theirs right now. Anyway, that's not really why I'm writing this.
Mary Lynn's uncle George, 97 years old, had surgery recently and had a number of visitors in the hospital while in there. Great Niece Beth Garvey when visiting asked him " what was the greatest advancement or invention in your lifetime?". While many people might think, air travel, computers, television, etc., his response was "Indoor Plumbing". When you stop to think about it, I guess that is a major advancement. He said they had an outhouse and used a Sears and Roebuck catelog for toilet paper! When you think about your cozy bathroom today, that is a major advancement. Indoor plumbing allows for easier cooking, dish clean-up, house cleaning, body cleaning and all the other things people do in the bathroom getting ready for bed or to go out in public.
If I were asked that question about my lifetime, I'm not sure how I would respond. I guess it would have to be television. When I think of how many hours people spend in front of one it seems to be heads above any other invention. I remember seeing my first TV. I was at Montgomery-Wards with my Dad and saw one for the first time. Kukla, Fran and Ollie was on. I'd never heard of them and didn't think much of the show, but TV was awesome. I remember when we had our TV, no show came on until 4:00 p.m. At that time Howdy Doody came on. Before that the only thing on when you turned on the TV was a Test Pattern. At 3:00 a picture of Howdy Doody appeared in the middle of the test pattern. TV went off after the 11:00 o'clock news. TV brought us events "LIVE" from around the world. It's hard to believe that around 1950 you only heard about events on the radio, you couldn't SEE what was happening. You might get to see them a week later in "newsreels" at your local theatre.
What was the most important invention or major advancement in your lifetime? Respond please
2 comments:
That's a tough one. So many things have changed since 1969, but it's hard to pick on particular advance or innovation. A lot of it is just incremental.
I guess I'd have to go with the prevalence of computerization in general. It affects almost everything I do. I can now get on my computer at work or at home and find an answer to almost any question that humans have an answer to. Photos, art, communication, 90% of my work day, local and world news, recipes, phone numbers, how-to info: the computer and the Internet are central in finding and using and managing all this stuff for me.
Mine was going to be the internet - I remember life without it and now I don't spend a day without using it. It has changed how people think really - we expect that everything we do should happen *really* fast, because we can get everything else *really* fast on the internet. It has changed pretty much everything!
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