Amazing!

Almost every day I am amazed at something new, it seems. Right now we are cruising along I-10 between Fort Stockton and Kerrville, Texas, and here I am, blogging and sending emails, instant communication, all over the country or even the world! That is truly amazing!

Have reached the ripe old age of 65, it is truly remarkable to think back on the changes which have occurred in my lifetime, far too many to list here in one little space. However, communication is definitely one big change. When I was a kid, radio was our form of entertainment before television arrived on the scene. I can remember sitting in front of the big radio, as tall as I was, listening to the Saturday morning children's programs: "Let's Pretend," "The Buster Brown Show," "Flash Gordon," and so on. With my eyes closed, I imagined all of the scenes and places that came to life without anyone else's pictures to show me. It is no wonder that kids from my generation grew up with such vivid imaginations! Every Sunday night, the family would gather around the radio listening to Jack Benny, Phil Harris, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Our Miss Brooks. They became close friends to all of us, and they made us laugh!

Telephones were certainly different back then, too! At my grandmother's in New York, I was fascinated by her telephone. When I picked it up, often there were people on the line having a lively conversation, and I could just sit there and listen in! Fortunately, I didn't do that too often, especially after my grandmother caught me doing it and explained to me that those were private conversations, even though it was on a shared party line. Now, that was hard for a six-year old to understand! At that time, even in the New York City area on Long Island, her phone number only had four digits. That tells you how many phones there were. By the time I was 11 and my father was in the Philippines, the only way to communicate with him was one time talking via a short wave radio contact, waiting weeks by mail, or through an impersonal telegraph by wire. There was absolutely nothing to compare to our email or phone system today.

So when I blithely pick up my cell phone and talk to anyone any where in the country (Can you hear me now?), it is amazing to think of that capability. And to think I can write this message on a computer while traveling down an interstate highway, click a button, and it can immediately be seen all over the world! What amazing progress! It would even more extraordinary to imagine that people all over the world could put that communication to better use by trying more diligently to learn to get along together in a more accepting, understanding, peaceful world. Now, that it is REALLY something to imagine!