A BIRTHDAY

I feel like I am living in a technological bubble. My first house had its own well and a fireplace for emergency heat. The place I just moved out of after 43 years had its own well and two wood stoves. I never gave a second thought to the thermometer when it plunged below zero. I could always crank up a wood stove. Now.................. twice we had to call the furnace man. Both times after hours and the temperature was heading down. He is a great guy, I asked him kiddingly, if he had anything to do with these furnaces going out on these cold Nights. He said, “ I have never had a furnace call in July.” We don't actually feel particularly vulnerable, we have such great service men in the area. Both of the furnace problems were normal wear and tear, they are going to happen when the demand for heat is growing swiftly. The first problem was a Flame Sensor the second time it was a Pressure Switch that was stuck closed. Hopefully all will be well for the foreseeable future.

It is my birthday tomorrow. I will have completed 84 years on planet Earth and I will begin the first day of my 85^th year. I confuse myself and others by saying it this way. In our common parlance I will be 84 tomorrow, although it is also true I am beginning my 85^th year. That is enough of that silliness.

The world I was born into is strikingly different from today's world. Our only communication device besides the telephone was AM radio. I don't know when FM became available, but the folks that lived in our area only had AM. Our telephone was a party line, my grandparents had a private line but few people did. We were one of the first people in our neighborhood to get a TV. I think I was thirteen. We got it on a fluke. Believe me my one/half Norwegian Father would never have shelled out the money for a TV. I could be wrong, he loved technology. However in this case, his brother, my Uncle Mo bought a TV for my elderly Grandparents. After a few days my Grandfather saw little people in suits around the house when the TV was turned off. It was decided that we should have the TV. I think my Grandfathers delusions disappeared with the TV.

Interestingly enough, I was on TV about a year later. There was an Outdoor Sport Show that aired. It was called the Jerry Carnes Show. They had a Golden Retriever puppy on the show and they were giving it away to the person who would write the best suggestion they could use for their show. I think I scribbled out 36 suggestions and sent them in. I won!

The TV studio looked nothing like it looked on the screen. It was in St Paul in a barn like building. There was a large open space with a dingy looking set on one end with huge cameras surrounding it. It looked much neater and more elegant when viewed from home.

My dog came from Kingdale's Kennels. I named and registered him as Kingdale's Thunderbolt. Of course he was always just Thunder. He was my best friend much of the time growing up. He must have been six years old when I went in the Air Force in 1954. When I was discharged in 1958 he had grown old. He died a few months after I came home. I was happy he waited for me to return before he left. I can't help but shed a tear or two on the keyboard.

I couldn't begin to recall all the changes I have seen in my lifetime. When I left High School and started working in 1952 we still had street cars. When folks went on a trip they took a train. When I joined the Air Force they sent us out to California for basic training by train, Pullman, that is when trains were still elegant. I don't think I have ever been treated more royally than on that trip. The dining car was equipped better than any restaurant I have ever been in, crystal and what looked like sterling silver [I am sure it wasn't] and the food it was great and the menus surprisingly expansive.

Little things like adding machines didn't exist outside of business establishments. Balancing your checkbook took a sharp pencil and a little mathematics. I didn't own an adding machine until I went into private practice in 1971.

Of course that brings us to computers that have made the greatest changes in our lives.

I was first introduced to computers when I was in the Air Force I was an electronic technician, I repaired, installed and maintained Radar Sets. We had a computer that programmed the returning signals that were portrayed on a screen for the Radar Operators to view. The computer sat in a huge quonset hut that had to be air conditioned. It used electron tubes, one of which was about thirty inches tall. All that it did was compute azimuth and distance. It must have cost millions of dollars. A hand held device today could do the same thing and cost a few dollars.

There have been so many changes. I will mention one more, grocery stores. Most grocery stores were Mom an Pop affairs and they occurred every few blocks where I lived. The family often lived above the store. In larger towns and in some sections of cities a big grocery store would exist, but nothing like super markets today. Much of the food stuff was sold in bulk and had to be packaged. Flour and white sugar were packaged. Brown sugar was in a bin. Potatoes, rice etc. could be found both packaged and in bulk. There were separate stores that were specialized meat markets, in our neighborhood, the large grocery store had a meat market. The chickens hung by their feet behind the counter and the grocer asked you if you wanted it drawn or not. There was no extra charge. My Mom always wanted to clean the chicken herself. I don't know her reasoning.

In one sense the changes are profound, yet life continues to be dominated by one thing, relationships; how we treat one another. I would rather live in a cave or the middle of a jungle with folks that loved each other than in a high technology world where people were not cared for and treated with respect.

Love and Peace, Gregg