I’m celebrating my seventy fifth birthday. How can that be? I’m three-quarters of a century old! That sounds so ancient for some reason. My dad would be surprised at the whole concept for he said to me during an exceptionally trying time in my teen years, “If you don’t change your ways, you will be dead or in jail by the time you are 35.”
That reminds me of a Bob Dylan song, “The Times They Are A Changin’.” As I look back on the three quarters of a century that I have inhabited this earth, there have been some major changes.
To name a few:
Telephones for one.
When I was a kid, our phone hung on the wall, and you cranked the side handle to dial the number, which weren’t numbers but a combination of rings. You spoke into a cone shaped receiver on the box, and you listen with a piece held to your ear. Our number was two shorts rings and one long ring. My grandma’s number was two longs and one short. I remember this because I had to listen very closely because my family shared the line with five others whose number would ring into our phone. The party line was an interesting concept. My mother warned me to mind what I said on the phone because our neighbor Margaret would listen to everyone’s call and there was no such thing as privacy. Whatever was said became common knowledge in the neighborhood by nightfall.
When I was in eighth grade in the early sixties, a speaker from Michigan Bell came and spoke of the phones of the future and how we would be talking without a cord attached and would be able to call anywhere in the United States at no charge. He had a prototype. It was the size of man’s shoe. We all thought he was crazy.
Today I talk into my watch just like Detective Gadget or Maxwell Smart.
Medical Advances have changed.
My grandma had to have her cataracts removed. It was a very scary procedure. My mother visited her in the hospital where Grandma was recovering. Her recovery would take six weeks, and her head was surrounded by sandbags. She wasn’t allowed to move her head the entire time. To a six-year-old that sounded entirely impossible. I prayed for her every night that she would not go nuts from lying there doing nothing.
Today cataract surgery is on an outpatient basis. You go in and after a few hours you head home. Wouldn’t Grandma have really liked that!
Nightly family entertainment has changed.
I remember sitting at my dad’s feet as we listened to the show, “Behind the Green Door”, a radio show that to this day just the mere thinking of it sends chills up my spine. We also would listen to ballgames, the news, and music. We laughed, talked and learned how to play card games.
Television was invented during my childhood. Mercy, I am old! The first time I saw a television was at an appliance store. My dad had gone in to see what the fuss was all about. As I entered the store, the television was displayed in the center of the room. It was a small box, and a very small man was inside it. He looked right at me and sang, “I’ll take you home again Kathleen.” I did an immediate 180 and dashed out the door. It took my dad two blocks to catch me. I wasn’t going anywhere with that guy, and besides I couldn’t fit in that box anyways. It took my dad a long time to convince me that he was an entertainer and that he didn’t know my name.
When we got a TV, it was the neighborhood attraction and the only one in our township. Lots of people would ‘happen to stop by’ and stay until the screen would turn to snow. There was no discussion as to what channel we would watch because there was only one. I remember the sound of the National Anthem was a signal I needed to fall asleep because my parents would soon be upstairs.
Today I channel surf to find something that appeals to me. The choice of over 300 channels alone is enough to waste a person’s time. Plus, some of the content would make my mother blush. And because we have multiple televisions in our home, everyone can watch what they want.
But some things haven’t changed.
The importance of family and friends
As a child, my family was the center of my world. We played together. We learned together. We survived together. It was their love that welcomed me home after a day of school, and it was that same love that waved goodbye as I grew and spread my wings.
Today, my parents are gone, and even my siblings but now my family is my spouse and children. Love is the center and continues to be the foundation of everything.
Friends may have changed but the essence of friendship has not.
Recently I visited with college friends that I hadn’t seen in close to forty-five years. It amazed me how much joy I felt as we spent time remembering and catching up. It was as if we had never been apart.
HERE’S THE THING: Things change. In the seventy-five years that I have taken in air, change is the only constant. There are three things I know. My dad was right. I am not in jail, and I am still breathing. So, I must have changed too.
mamaschwartz@hotmail.com
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Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of articles written by a group of retired and current teachers — LaNae Abnet, Ken Ballinger, Billy Kreigh, Kathy Schwartz, and Anna Spalding. Their intent is to spur discussions at the dinner table and elsewhere. You may also voice your thoughts and reactions via The News-Banner’s letters to editor.
