When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s Skype was unheard of, let alone the internet, email, instant messaging, etc. When we were kids a long distance phone call was a big deal. This was a time when we paid long distance charges from Hammonds Plains to a neighbouring community of St. Margaret’s Bay.
In the late 1970’s long distance calls within Canada were around 90¢ per minute. Now with internet about $50.00 per month we can talk for an unlimited time with video as well as share photos instantly. On Christmas Eve I was talking with Dad in Florida and sent him an email with photos while we were on the phone. His inbox dinged literally as soon as I clicked send. Even as I type this I’m listening to a radio station from St Johns, Michigan, again unheard of before the internet.
It seemed so weird to me that I could show my Christmas tree live to Anya who at the same time was able to ask me questions about some of my ornaments and about Christmas in Canada. She was also quite pleased to see a small Kyrgyz hat (called a kalpak) hanging on it, that I had purchased when I was there in 2007. A kalpak is a traditional felt hat that is worn by men in Kyrgyzstan. I also gave her a quick tour of my apartment so that she could see some of the other decorations. My tiny cramped apartment is quite fancy she said.
When we were kids it was unheard of to pick up a notebook computer and walk around the house with it (wirelessly at that) and show someone on the opposite side of the world live video of whatever you want to show them. In the 1970’s we had to wait ten days for photos from our camera to be developed (hoping that the pictures would turn out) and then another 10 days to several months for the mail to deliver them to an international destination. Also, a computer hard drive at that time could take up the entire floor of an office building – pretty hard to lift!
In my time on this earth so far technology has changed so fast that I can’t even keep up. I can only imagine how much change my parents and grandparents have seen in their lives. I mentioned in a previous blog how I never thought I would go to a country in the former Soviet Union or that there would even be a former Soviet Union amongst other things. The more I think of these things the more amazed I am. It’s a small world after all.
Anyways…it’s just a thought. (A thought that probably won’t mean much to the under forty crowd, but will be more significant to my age and older.)
The kalpak is on the left.May you all have a blessed and amazing new year!
Я тебя люблю! (Yellow blu vas!)
