SENIOR MOMENT: A lifetime of changes

By BETTY MUNSEY/Columnist

Every time local television stations air reminder notices of their required switch from analog to digital programming in February 2009, I think back to our first black and white television in the early 1950s. Several mountain ranges between our home and the transmission towers on Poor Mountain in southwestern Roanoke County prevented clear signal reception.  Even pieces of aluminum foil on the rabbit ears failed to fine-tune the snowy images.
Today’s young people have grown accustomed to watching large screen digital theater-quality televisions connected to either a satellite receiver or the cable. With a touch of their hand-held remote control, they can select from more than 150 channels of viewing pleasures.
So much of our lives have become automated beyond any of our early expectations. Those of us who remember crank telephones that connected six or more families on each phone line to a central community operator love the ease and privacy afforded by today’s telephone services. Now we can identify and screen callers, return calls with the touch of one button, and look face-to-face as we speak to the person on the other phone. Rather than traveling great distances for business, we can connect multiple locations in one conference call. We’ve removed the bulky CB antennas from our car roofs and now depend on cell phones for our personal safety and communication needs. GPS (Global Positioning Systems) tell us where we are and where we’re going without having to unfold a paper map or ask a stranger by the road.
Our grandmothers probably cooked on wood stoves; whereas, our mothers depended upon electric or gas ranges. As newly married couples in the ‘60s, many of us started housekeeping with a two-eyed hot plate and a bake oven until we could afford the convenience of a modern range. Today’s consumers expect their kitchens to be equipped with microwave and convection ovens, fingerprint-proof stainless steel appliances, and every labor-saving device known to man.
As I type this article on our home computer with its word processor and spell check, I remember the days of manual typewriters, carbon papers, and the first bottles of correction fluid. While standing mesmerized watching the copy center’s copier spit out double-sided picture-perfect copies, I can’t imagine the devotion of 15th Century monks who dedicated their entire lives to patiently and meticulously copying the Bible word-for-word.
Sam Slemp, former newspaper photographer extraordinaire, now deceased, shamed me into using my first digital camera all the while assuring me that I would love the results. And he was right many times over. Today’s cameras capture microsecond slices of life without depending upon film and separate light sources. Our little Brownie box cameras and the now obsolete Polaroids are only remembered by the fading photos they created.
Rather than bringing dozens of brown eggs and home-churned butter to the county store to barter for a bag of groceries, we simply insert our credit card into the scanner, sign our name and forget that we spent a lot of money for that convenience. Scanners deduct money from our bank and credit accounts, record our attendance at Virginia Tech football games, and record our movements through store security areas.
Seniors have been privileged to experience many modern marvels through our life’s journey and realize that the value of each of these advancements depends upon our management over them and not their dominance over us.
A retired Extension agent, Betty Munsey lives and farms in Bland County.