Birthdays

I don't know when I got to be the age I am – most days I don't feel my age (of course there are the days when I feel about 102!) but the calendar doesn't lie – it's been over 5 decades since I was born on this day.

There's been a lot that's happened in that time – just think about where I'm writing this!! It wouldn't have been thought possible in 1950! The typewriters were manual. I now have several telephones and none of them are hardwired into the wall (and I don't have to talk to an operator to make a call). I remember our first TV - it was black & white and there were only 3 channels (clarity depended on how the antenna was working at the time!). I remember everyone gathering around the TV to watch Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Lawrence Welk!! Now the TV is HD and there are 100s of channels (with still nothing interesting on sometimes!) and there are several in the house – everyone gets his own. It's now considered normal to have more than one bathroom, a multi-car garage and houses much larger than absolutely necessary.

The past seemed perfect to me – we played outside all day long and roamed the neighborhood at will – but I know it wasn't, just as I know that today isn't perfect either. I'm glad that I'm here now – I enjoy the comforts of 2009 – I bless the person who made air conditioning affordable and I am grateful to the people who made it possible for me to have a blog on the Internet. I like the speed of communication today (gone are the days of writing letters that take weeks to be delivered) but I do miss the excitement of going to the mailbox and finding an unexpected letter from a family member or friend.

Just some reflections on my life – nothing serious and nothing profound. Maybe that will come next year!