(11 Weeks)
Air-conditioning. Dishwashers. Refrigerators. Rotary phones. TVs. Automobiles. Commercial aircraft. Credit cards.
My parents, born in the 1920s, had none of these things growing up while I took them for granted. Their parents didn’t have access to medical care that is now commonplace. Coronary by-pass surgery which extended the lives of both my parents, only came along in the early 1960s. And vaccines! My parents knew a lot of people who had polio. I knew one. I had the mumps and measles as a child. My daughter did not.
My parents told stories of how they gathered with their families around a radio in the living room for news and entertainment. Their families didn’t have cars. Their homes didn’t have a telephone – at all. And well into my childhood, my mom would often refer to the refrigerator as the “ice box” (a throwback to the boxes of her youth with a compartment for food and another lined with tin for the block of ice, that predated the refrigerator to keep food cold).
My mother also talked about how Minnie, the family cat, would often sleep in “the coal bin” and come out full of soot. Their heat came from a coal furnace. The coal bin in the basement caught the ash. It was her brother’s job to clean the coal bin – mostly of the ash, sometimes of Minnie.
My dad told me about the fun he’d have at Coney Island on a summer day, that ended with a horrendous journey home, sunburned, on a crowded train with no air conditioning. He told stories about how after leaving the service at the conclusion of WWII he went to work for the department of the Navy, as a civilian, on some of the first IBM computers. They filled entire rooms.
I recall thinking that my parents grew up during such an incredible time and saw the creation of so many modern conveniences. My mind at the time couldn’t even conceive of the innovation that would occur in my lifetime and how so many of those “modern conveniences” would evolve – many out of existence – before my daughter would even reach high school.
The internet. Roombas. Smart phones. Streaming services. GPS. Fitness trackers. Voice-activated assistants. Surveillance capitalism. The near eradication of polio and other diseases.
Cell phones, online banking, and GPS have completely changed my routines for the better and allow me to spend my time engaged in more meaningful pursuits, and not get lost as much as my parents did. It can be argued that some of technology’s advancements have led to much of that time being wasted and our minds being manipulated in dangerous ways. Although, I also recall my parents often referring to television as “the boob tube.”
My daughter was able to grow up in a world without the fear of many of the childhood diseases I was not because she was immunized. We are also force-fed advertising targeted at us because of algorithms. We have to weed through a sea of disinformation on social media – including anti-vax campaigns – that threaten public health and at its extreme, democracy and world order.
We are at the peril of every company, medical office, and government agency that holds our confidential data. Requirements of life in the 21st Century that come with a lot of risks. In the hands of bad actors, the consequences could be dire.
I often think about childhood, and if one morning I woke in my old bedroom, without my smart phone, or fitness tracker, or Google, would I care? Would it matter? Would there be a moment when I would be frustrated by not being able to text a friend? Would I be annoyed going to the library, using the card catalog, and spending hours doing my own research of a subject? Or would I embrace the simplicity of that time? I wonder too if my parents ever wished to have the “simplicity” of their childhood back, or did modern conveniences truly offer an easier life?
My parents lived through the Great Depression and a World War. Mortality rates were much higher during their youth and there is no doubt that their chores required a lot more effort, plus there were all those uphill walks to and from school. So I am thinking that they would view their adult lives as better times. I’m not sure I can say the same.
Did you really think this wasn’t going to include a fundraiser? It’s me. Of course it is! Over the course of these 60 weeks, I am hoping to raise $6000 for the children of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (that’s just $100 a week!). To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.
