Dinosaur Daisy

Dear Posterity,

Your mother is a bit of a dinosaur.  She qualifies as a millennial (entitled/instant gratification folk with doting parents who sometimes helicopter and a real seeker of true work life balance - a term unknown to Generation X or the Baby Boomers...) but she'll argue against those characteristics and tell you she is a multitasking, diverse, tech savvy and self motivated learner who has luckily had the luxury of living on the cusp of the advancing technology of her day.  She lived in a time of great change.  Some of these items will be foreign to you, and most are obsolete... but they were a big part of your mother's life growing up.  So here goes!

1) encyclopedia [en-sahy-kluh-PEI-dee-uh] - When I was a kid, I begged my mom for an encyclopedia set to have in the house.  It would make school projects so much easier, and what kid doesn't love an entire set of encyclopedias to roam through?!  Alphabetically organized with random information for hours of reading pleasure too!  For years, she promised me one... but we waited because we wanted to make sure I was a good age before purchasing one, and then we were waiting for my brother to be older so we could both use it, and then after many years of hopelessly waiting... the internet came out.  No longer did we have the problem of purchasing a good set.

2) VHS - The video home system was our version of the Blu-Ray or DVDs of today.  They were essentially film stripes in a black box that got placed into a VHS player for viewing on our television.  We owned every Disney movie that came out during my childhood on VHS - and though they tended to get eaten up after constant replays, they were in great condition - and I couldn't wait to have my kids watch those same movies with me.  Now it seems useless to have another device hooked up to VHS for the poor quality, so instead, I anxiously await Disney's unlocking of the Disney vault for my favorite Disney movies to be purchased on DVD (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, to name a few) as I only own Little Mermaid.

3) home phones - In our day, we used to have phones in the house connected to the walls.  No, not cell phones, actual phones with telephone cords and no reception problems.  My parents still have one, but it's wireless - only the base is plugged into the wall.  

4) stereos - Before iPods and before laptop computers played Pandora or I Heart Radio music, there were these machines that played music.  We called them stereo systems and even boom boxes and they were a thing to be admired.  My parents got me a remote controlled 3-CD disc changer, two cassette tape, and radio all in one stereo system with two speakers from Pic'N'Save (now Big Lots) for $100 in 1994, and it lasted me all through high school and college.  My brother got a much cooler one with blue lights but his died before mine, which finally got donated to Goodwill in 2007 when the CD changer broke.  It was a sad day.  

5) CD or cassette tape singles - Unlike today when you can buy just one song on iTunes, our day consisted of CD and cassette tape singles, which were also about 99 cents or $1.99.  Too bad I gave most of these away to Goodwill a long time ago.

I got to thinking of these after a lesson at Church today where we talked about how the kids of this generation will not be able to socially interact as well because of the tendency to text or play online games via iPhones.  Guilty as charged.  But while everyone was feeling sorry for my generation, I was thinking how far we've come!  Hehe.