First Times Still Amaze Me

Here we are driving down the road to get to Kentucky, not knowing where we are , Judy pulls out the cell phone with the GPS on it. We get all excited about using it for the first time. Then she mentioned the excitement we got out of it and that our kids think nothing of it because they think of it as part of the norm.

This and a conversation with Sara recently about all the history our generation has gone through. When we were in high school it was to late for us to learn new math, how to use calculators and the metric system. Which is why we have a hard time helping with homework. When we were in school there wasn't such a thing as home computers now there aren't many homes without one.

We did have vinyl record albums then came 8 track tapes followed by cassette tapes, and now there are CD's and MP3 players. What is next? Telephones went from dial to push button, from corded to cordless, and now we have cell phones with so many features who knows how to use them all. We went from analog black and white TV, to color, TV to High Definition, from a big wooden box TV, to skinny LCD flat screens which are now being expanded to 3D TV.

There are advances in science such as the space program. We were around for the first space rockets to the last flight of the space shuttles. We can remember the first walk on the moon. We saw it on TV as it happened. Anyone that was around could probably tell you where they were when this happened. We saw a lot of first. We saw the first women to run for vice president, then the first women to run for president, and the first black man be elected president.

We also lived through many disasters such as the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and the War on Terrorism. We lived through the bombing of the Twin Towers which completely changed every ones life. We lived through the assassination of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. We lived through an attempted assassination of President Reagan and the murder of John Lennon.

We have seen burning of flags, draft cards, and bras, LSD and marijuana, Woodstock and protests. Now there is pollution and global warming. There have been space shuttle explosions, mass murders, racial riots and many new diseases (cancer, aides, diabetes).

I can just imagine what our parents saw and what they thought of it all. We are all just starting to take everything for granted. We all have to stop and start to smell the roses,. By the way that GPS really worked. We found where we wanted to be. Heartland Campground in Campbellsville, Kentucky.