I have seen a lot of technology changes in my lifetime.  We got our first television when I was in first grade - it was black and white.  Years later we got a color TV.....I never had a TV with a remote until after I got out of college.

The first hand held "4 function" calculator came out while I was in high school......they could add, subtract, multiply and divide.  By the time I reached college we could get scientific calculators pretty easily and my freshman year we were learning Fortran computer language and punching cars - when I was a senior the Engineering Department began teaching us to use PC computers for the structural programs.  When I graduated and begin doing municipal work all the public works vehicles communicated by using the Motorola radios that were installed in the cars.

Cell phones came along much later....and I avoided having a cell phone for a very long time as I really didn't want the distraction while I was working - and I finally got one when I kept going to different job sites in one town.....and the workers kept saying 'The Mayor was here looking for you"!  I was in town and I was working - we just kept missing each other.

My first "WOW" incident occurred a few weeks after I got the phone.  We were on vacation in Estes Park, CO, and we had left town, drove up to a trailhead, and then walked about 1.5 hours and were on to of a mountain at a glacier overlooking the valley.  I pulled out my simple little cell phone (no flip phone yet)....and it showed I had cell service!  I called the office back in KY and told the receptionist "guess where I am"....it was really incredible to me that I could call the office from the wilderness on a pocket phone!

The next "WOW" moment occurred when I saw my first Iphone.  We were at the local fair watching a horse show, and the fellow in front of us held up his phone and I could see the picture on the screen, and I saw him take a picture with his phone!  He then showed us how he could send the photo to his brother in California!

It will be interesting to see what the coming years will bring!

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 04/28/17 at 14:43:01:


Yep, my dad was an Allstate Insurance agent and got his first calculator for $100.....it was 4 function.  Before he got that he had one of those plug in desk top adding machines.

I still use ice cube trays and hang out my laundry...

The Savage is perfect for me...

Serowbot wrote on 04/29/17 at 08:12:05:


I used clothes pins to attach the baseball trading cards to the spokes of my bike so it would sound like a savage 🛵

I bet everybody remembers CP/M and WordStar out here too.

The calculator came out when I was in about 6th grade. By high school there were classes requiring scientific calculators.  I learned programming on an MP/M system in FORTRAN and COBOL. We switched the next year to pc's for word processing classes.

I was like Dave and resisted cell phones for years.  Then, AT&T started going loopy and raising my phone bill by a couple bucks a month for no reason. So, I got the cell and got rid of AT&T...It was cheaper.

I think my cell phone WOW moment was when I was working in the next town about 50 miles away and my family called to tell me my mom had had a stroke.  If I hadn't had the cell, it would have been another 6 hours before I got back to the office and found out.

I also had 8-track, then cassette, then CD. My oldest son who is 24 now had never seen a record being played until he was 18 and saw me playing one.

Things sure have changed.  You've got more computing power in your pocket with the cheapest smart phone you can find than they had to land a man on the moon.

Anybody remember CB's?

I Have a CB in the pikkup..