Everyone likes progress...everyone likes new technology...everyone prefers 'new' over 'old'...or do they???
The first thing I remember was my days as an altar boy...they had us memorize all that beautiful Latin Prayer only to establish English as the vernacular for the Catholic Mass! AMO!...juventutem meam!
Then right after I learned how to operate a 'standard transmission' column mounted...they come out with a 'four on the floor' because it was nostalgicly retro!!! Not to mention Chrysler's, decades ahead, pushbutton dash mounted automatic transmission...like 'Beta' vs 'VHS'...Better lost...popular won!!!
Right after I get all set up with my Ampex Reel to Reel 4 track professional tape recorder...8 track cartridges come out...ease of use wins out over high quality...acceptable overrules astounding!!!
In a family 'beach discussion' in the early '80s...I announce to my children my desire to drink 'bottled spring water'...not yet invented by the way...only to be laughed at uproareously with, "Dad, who would be willing to pay for water in a bottle, when you can get it free"? I'm thinking of suggesting 'bottling air'...so far, that's free also!!!
And why has 'crust' been engineered out of 'breadmaking'...has everything gone the way of the 'sandwich'...why don't we 'break' bread anymore??? If you don't like crust, then cut it off!!!
Photography, always a favorite hobby, goes digital...and I retire thousands of dollars worth of great 'amateur' equipment to a box in the closet! Not to mention hundreds of great 35mm slides and reels and reels of 8mm movies...must get them 'converted'...
Those 9 dollar canvas sneakers that enabled you to move at will through all sports with 'olympic' agility have been replaced by 'single sport' dedicated $150.00 athletic footwear approved and recommended by sports heroes probably on steroids!!!
That pure 100+ Octane 25 cents per gallon gasoline has been replaced by $3.60 per gallon 'diluted with corn' versions...
Ticonderoga #2 lead pencils, whose erasers wore out before the pencils 'bit the dust'...have been replaced by throwaway ball points and ink pens???...wait a minute...didn't we start out with 'feather' varieties of those in the 'middle ages'... Are we going full circle here!
Can it be that my favorite cereal of all time...POST OAT FLAKES...was liked by so few that it was eliminated from production...and why don't Cheerios taste the same as when I was a kid...let ME put sugar on them, if I want to...
In the 70s when I broke into this real estate industry, complete transaction files were maybe a quarter of an inch thick...now they're about 3 inches thick...Agreements of sale ---one page, two sides...Settlement sheets---1 page, 1 side...mortgages---3 or 4 pages...thank God we're making progress in this 'paper saving age'...
Maybe we oughta go back and pick up all those pieces we threw away!!!
Do you think the 'wheelbarrow' will soon be making a comeback???
And this is just Part One!!!
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