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A Texas Two Step

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Falling behind the tech boom
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
I used to be rather proud that I could use a computer, surf the Internet and use word processing to write for a living. I thought I was probably ahead of the average person in his/her sixties in the use of current technology.
But over the past year, I've begun to feel I'm falling behind. I don't have a Smart Phone. I thought an android was a sci-fi robot. Now there's a Droid and I don't really know what it does.
Apparently there is also an iPad and an iPod or is it an iPhone? I don't know how they differ or what they do. I looked up the iPad and it seems to be quite expensive to acquire, plus, I suspect, I would need some sort of app services that would have a fee attached to them. I'm curious about these devices but my budget dictates no added costs right now.
Since I hate the web of wires behind my desktop computer, I'm curious about WiFi. I see ads on the television of people using little laptops and no wires anywhere. I priced these at the local computer center and it looks like any change will have to be deferred, so I'll just have keep trying to vacuum around the forest of wires.
In my lifetime, so much has happened in technology, it's almost dizzying. But I suppose it was ever thus, at least over the last century.
My father was born around 1901. I recall him telling me about the excitement caused in his tiny Scottish village when one of the huge German airships came over and the wonder he felt the first time he saw an aircraft in flight. During his early schooling, home work was still done by gaslight. What an amazing change the arrival of electricity must have brought to the village.
I lived with my maternal grandmother for some years as a youngster and I recall that she had a handsome Marconi radio, in a large highly polished cabinet. She listened every morning to a soap opera, "Young Dr. Morgan" and I was allowed to listen to "Terry and the Pirates." I was fascinated by The Dragon Lady.
In my own time, I recall the old rotary dial telephone in my parent's house. There was one phone in one place and you had to go to it when it rang. If it rang in the middle of the night, it usually meant trouble. It was simply a communication device. Now phones seem to do many things.
As my parent's finances improved, a new refrigerator arrived complete with a sizeable freezer and a machine that washed dishes. Oddly, my mother only used the dishwasher about once a week. The old clothesline in the back yard languished when a new clothes dryer arrived. In Canada, with six months of winter, this was a real boon.
The biggest change in our household came with the new television set. It sat in a corner of the living room in a big polished cabinet and caused many arguments over what I could watch or not watch.
I was introduced to all the great comics from Jack Benny and Oscar Levant to Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason. In the beginning, there was only the crown-owned Canadian Broadcasting System. They produced live Friday night programs featuring most of the Shakespeare plays. I found I loved Henry IV and MacBeth. Later luminaries such as William Shatner, Leslie Neilsen and Lloyd Bochner all came from CBC drama programs before arriving in the U.S.
The biggest argument happened when my parents debated whether or not I would be allowed to watch a performance on the Ed Sullivan Show featuring the new sensation, Elvis Presley. I recall a debate raging about whether Mr. Sullivan would show Elvis only from the waist up. How times have changed!
But, I still don't have Smart Phone. Maybe the next one will be able to do the dusting and vacuuming. When that happens, I'll line up to buy one!
Copyright©2011SheilahPepper