Thursday, December 27, 2007

Ain't Technology Grand

Since I’m spending the holidays in a Technological Void and haven’t been able to get onto this blog, Micol totally beat me to the post on FIRST KISS (THEN TELL). I’ve got a little memory play in the book called “Improvisation” and I so agree with her about the use of personal angst in my writing career.

Speaking of Technological Voids, can you guess what the hardest-to-find gift was this holiday season? Nope. Not the Wii. It’s a VCR. A plain old, simple VCR. Sure, there are plenty of VCR/DVD combos around, but what if your TV already has a DVD player built in? Why be redundant? It seems we no longer have a choice. The VCR has gone the way of Betamax. (And please do not ask me “What is Betamax?” I don’t think I could handle that right now.)

I had a chuckle a few weeks back when one of the kids on KID NATION (Yes, I watched every single episode. Your point?) thought a phonograph was a modern invention because it had a CD on it. Now, I do not blame the kid for this mistake. Recognizing a phonograph was simply outside of his life experience. Of course, this got me thinking of all the things I grew up with that kids born today probably won’t know. Heck, even things some of you reading this blog right now may not recognize, such as...

-Records. 8-Tracks. Cassettes. And probably CDs.
-A rotary phone. With a cord. And that buzzing sound when you leave it off the hook. (Oh, and the sweet mystery of not knowing who is on the other end of the line until you pick up the receiver.)
-The sound of a typewriter.
-Wham!
-The fine art of passing handwritten notes in class.
-A TV antenna.
-A TV Guide
-A TV ... well, depending on the fallout from the writers strike.
-Pong
-A Green Machine (It’s a kind of Big Wheel ... but green ... do they still make Big Wheels?).
-Roller skates – not blades.
-The Wonder Twins

I could go on, but I am WAY too young to feel so old.

Hope you all have a Happy 2008. Me? I’m going to stay right here, happily ensconced in 1987.

5 comments:

Little Willow said...

1987 was a good year.

I love typewriters.

I sang LAST CHRISTMAS just yesterday.

Jennifer Echols said...

-Wham!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *choking on coffee*

Micol Ostow said...

SPACE INVADERS

But...okay, what's a green machine?

P.J. Ruditis said...

There's really no easy way to describe a Green Machine. It's like a Big Wheel. Only stretched out longer. And with gears instead of handlebars. And it's green. Like Elphaba.

Wikipedia refers to it a "recumbent tricycle."

WHITNEY LYLES said...

No one passes notes in class? I don't know how I would pass the time if I was in school. I am terrible at text messaging!!
My husband had a poker party the other night and a couple members from the band he used to play in left a record album version of their new single when they were here. When I walked in I was like, Louis XIV has a calendar for 2008? My husband is still laughing.