Looking back, like bflatgary, remember when there weren't cell phones also....when the only time you could talk to someone was when you were in your house & connected by wire to the phone.....even the house lines you couldn't walk around with unless you had a huge long phone cord.....& there was the party line.....where you would hear all the calls coming in your neighborhood & you would have a specific ring that was yours.....you could pick up the phone & listen to all your neighbors business if you were so inclined....but you couldn't call someone from the store to find out what they want for dinner or what flavor ice cream they want you to pick up or they couldn't call on your way home from work & ask you to pick up something for dinner. Texting is another new thing...even new to my daughter who is only 30.....but we have started texting each other & I love it. My husband who is my age, just won't get into the texting thing.....but then he's having problems anyway, so that doesn't surprise me.

Cameras had film that you had to have developed & it took weeks to get your photos back. You couldn't just take a photo & plug in the photo card to your computer, see the photo & print it out.

Gasoline was only $0.50 or less a gallon.....now that's something I would love to go back to.

Music was still on records....those vinal things that go round & round on a record player.....so what's a record player.....something you find in an antique store? The cassett players were just coming out, but most everything was on 8 track tape if it wasn't a record. Movie cameras were all on tape. & VHS wasn't around yet.....VHS which is now out of date has come & gone.

Tonight, I layed on my air matress & watched a movie on my laptop that was sitting next to me in bed because I don't have a TV or DVD player except for the one on my computer. Who would have ever imagined that.

I went to the CPA to do my taxes today & remembered on the way that I had forgotten the information that I had printed out last night......kicking myself, I was thinking about going back to pick it up....then I realized that I could access it off the internet & all I had to do was connect to my account when I got there & zap....there it was.

The technology that we have today has made life so much simpler & yet more complicated....I remember my parents (my mother would have been 83 now....died 3 years ago), but she couldn't even figure out how to use a computer let alone allow herself to learn how to use the internet to communicate with people. That generation went through so many technical changes, it seemed that they could only accept so much as being real & then hit overload & couldn't deal with any more.

My generation started off with the space program.....where they would send up space vehicles up & they would turn around & come back down in the ocean....bobing around until they were picked up & hopefully wouldn't leak & sink before that happened.....from that to landing on the moon & seeing the photo of earth from the moon.......really? What kind of science fiction were we really living in....it couldn't possible be real.....now they are creating a space station to live in out in space on the way to exploring farther out into space.

To me, it's a blessing to be the age I am.....I have seen so many awsome developments & been part of amazing history that previous generations weren't a part of. For so long, things changes slowly......but then in my generation, things kept unfolding one after another, leaving us saying....what will they come up with next?

We were talking tonight at the community horse meeting about mapping trails here in Kentucky......cartographers had to do all the lat/long calculations & draw the maps from that. Now we have a little tool called the GPS that we can take out of the trails & it does all the maping for us. The government here is providing me with one, so I will be able to go out with some of the people & help with the mapping.......somehow I guess, my engineering background had helped me not be intimidated by techonology where others around here are. I am happy to be the age I am.....it is exciting to look back & see where things have come from & where they are going......I think that is the most exciting part about my age is that I have been able to see so many awsome changes just by the age of 55......so I may have a lot of years under my belt.....but I am young enough at heart to enjoy every minute of them.

Debbie