Friday, November 23, 2007

Twentieth Century

Ah. My schedule.  11 PM to 3 AM: Bed/Sleep.  3 AM to 4 AM: Write'compute. 4 AM to 7 AM: Bed/Sleep. Seven hours sleep.  So add one more hour sleep... 1 PM to 2 PM.  Sprinkle the rest of the day with Scooting, rowing the stationary bicycle, Waiting for meals, waiting for mail, watching re-runs of Two and Half Men, and all-new Boston Legal.

Not an adventurous life, but pretty much average for old folks home.

What personal discoveries startled me in the twentieth century?  First.  The centerfold.  My mouth dropped open when I saw my first Playboy on the newsstand.  Those first issues were not even stapled shut nor wrapped in plastic bags.  You picked them up and there in the middle was a fold out picture of a woman STARK NAKED  In a magazine. On the rack. In plain sight. Incredible.

Second. The transistor. Radio shrunk to the size of a deck of cards. Ham radio walkie talkies. Only the Ham radio operators could carry their phones with them...until CB radios came and made the Hams obsolete. Every car had a CB radio, and every truck. Drive into a strange town, and ask for directions on your CB radio. Now your car tells you where you are, then you had to ask your friendly CBer.

Third: The computer.  First one I ever saw was at Radio Shack.  It was a TRS-80. I had to have one.  That was when my sleep cycle was first interrupted. Even before the Internet I was losing sleep to the computer.

Fourth: Bikini swim wearLife Magazine showed us our first one. Startling.  Now they are commonplace...for women AND men, for swimming and underwear. Is this a wonderful age or not?

Fifth: Streamlined automobiles.  The first streamline auto was the Chrysler Airflow.  We laughed at them. It was so far ahead of its time that it almost put Chrysler out of business. Now all autos look like the 1934 DeSoto. Have you seen the Chevy Aveo?

Sixth: Tape recording.  My first audio recorder was a Sears Silvertone Wire recorder. It was out of date almost as soon as it was made, being replaced by tape. And that was followed by videotape. As a teenager filming a high school newsreel, I longed for color movies with sound. Before the century was out I had color, sound, videocam

Failed inventions of the Twentieth Century.  3 D movies. Topless swim wear. Flying automobiles. Eight track stereo

Four AM... I can go back to bed.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now chuck the waco 8 track was a must have in the car. LOL!

Anonymous said...

I still have my sterio with the 8 track and some 8 tracks that still sound good. one is Cher  ... ever so often I play them just for old times sake
Sandra

Anonymous said...

I remember almost all of it, Chuck.  The 1934 DeSoto is about 15 years ahead of me.  Many blessings to you, Penny  http://journals.aol.com/firestormkids04/FromHeretoThere http://journals.aol.com/firestormkids04/TimeforaLittlePoetry