Changes

 I've been alive for almost three quarters of a century.  I enjoy seeing vids and reading about how things were "back in the day."  If I were to write about the changes I've seen, I'm not sure where I would even begin.  I smoke a pipe.  I could start right there and just write about how attitudes about smoking have changed.  I could write a book about that.  Cars have changed.  They no longer make cars that have cigarette lighters, but the plug has remained for all our electronic accessories we need for car travel in addition to lots of USB ports.

That would take me to how cars have evolved, including ashtray removal these days.  Cars used to come with ashtrays for every occupant in a car with the higher end models having a cigarette lighter in every ashtray.  And I could write a book about ashtrays.  Every home used to have ashtrays, even homes of nonsmokers.  Second grade kids used to make ashtrays as gifts to their parents and these were displayed openly and proudly with parents often boasting that their kids made them.

Already I spent two paragraphs on just two items for smoking.  Ashtrays were everywhere, and there were always matches or lighters laying around, because people would smoke everywhere including commercial aircrafts.  I could write a book on how air travel has changed.  Men used to wear suits and women would wear their best dresses when traveling by air.  There were even bars on planes where drinks were given included in the airfare.  Often the kids dressed for airline travel.  And most of all, there were no smoking restrictions of ANY kind.

These are but a few examples of the changes I have seen in my lifetime and these are only a few.  A cell phone today has replaced about seven items one had to have that have been replaced.  Today's kids don't even know what a video camera is.  Professional movies are now being shot just by a phone.  

I could go on and on about the changes I've witnessed, but I'll spare you the details.  I could write about telephone technology and make that a book by itself.  The world is much smaller today than it was back before the Internet.  But even still after the introduction of the Internet things aren't as they were back then.  I want to see how a book explains the use of a fax machine.  Faxes aren't even necessary today, but some businesses still rely on faxes.  

That might be enough for now, but some of you have experienced a lot of changes in less than 25 years and you know what they are.  But try explaining these things to today's five year old!  I just read an article by aan old guy that was explaining all this to a kid today.  It's like he was speaking another language to the kid.  And how do we explain all that old stuff to those who don't know what that stuff was to us back then?

We knew about the horse and buggy days.  We didn't see all those changes, but we knew what they were.  We knew about manual typewriters as most of today's great grandparents had all that old stuff.  But in today's world most of us just changed with the times.  All that old stuff was sold at garage sales and we replaced it with new stuff.  All that old stuff from the 80's and 90's are either in landfills or are museum pieces.  We're old if we remember what that stuff was.  

How many old dial-up modems are sitting around and collecting dust?  I remember going from a 2.4k modem to a 5.6k modem which were connected to a phone land line and THAT was a change! Compare that to the 500GB modem of today!  Try to explain a kilobyte to a kid who only knows gigabytes!  It's like a kid trying to understand an anlog clock when all he knows is digital time.

You knew I'd get around to pipe smoking.  The only thing about a pipe today is where I can smoke one.  I hardly ever smoke my pipe in a car.  I can pack one in a suitcase for travel.  And once I get to my destination, I have to figure oit where I'll smoke it or whether I can smoke it all.

I'm on the patio this morning with my Nording Angel pipe having smoked a bowl of Captain Black Original.  I've just now re-filled my bowl.  Thankfully, some things never change, which was an ad campaign by Heinz Beanz.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave