ECKLEBURG
2004-09-10 - 12:19 p.m.
Whew, what a technology curve we are living through. I was talking to my parents couple of weeks ago, and we were talking about my newfound interest in transistor radios. We were talking about all the technologies that have come and gone during our lifetimes.
I could remember life pre-ATM’s, they could remember life pre-TV. I remember that my first TV was a 13 inch black and white set, and I remember when a time when there was more often 1 TV per household rather than 1 TV per person. I remember when TV’s all came with a knob on the front with 13 channels on it that you had to actually get up and turn by hand to switch channels. And my least favorite babysitter at the time would use my brother and I as human as human remote controls.
Then there was the big technology improvement of “remote controls.” Now these weren’t the sleek wireless things we have now. These were boxes with 12 buttons and a knob – and the worked the same way as a car radio does today – in the car you get 6 or so buttons and then there is some way to toggle between an FM1, FM2 and AM “band” for a total of 18 presets. On the TV, the 12 buttons selected individual channels, and the knob toggled between the “bands,” for a total of 36 channels. I remember trying to press 2 buttons at the same time to see which channel would display, and then trying the same thing, but while trying to push down 3, or 4, or all 12 buttons.
Remember when VCR’s were made out of metal and weighed 25 pounds?
Or when most phones still had cords? Or when cellular still wasn’t really around but if you were super rich you could have a car phone? Now we don’t even have a home phone number at all.
I remember winning a gift certificate for a free music album in school and having a choice of record, tape, or 8-track (although 8-track was on it way out). And video stores (none of which were chains) that were evenly divided between VHS and Beta sections.
And finally, when was the last time you went into your bank? I mean physically inside the building. I have been inside my bank precisely once – to set up my account, and even then, it wasn’t really my bank, it was a micro-branch of my bank in the my company’s building.
