Choosing Quality of Life--and Embracing Changes for the Better--Rarely Results in Regret

My husband Bret and I were at my folks' house recently to help with some heavy lifting tasks. Naturally, my bodybuilding husband was more help with that than I was! While we were there, I started asking questions about some of the photos of ancestors my mother has framed and on display. The more we were talking, I began to ask about specific people I remembered from my childhood, and my mother started digging out boxes of old photos which have been passed down from generation to generation. It was such fun hearing stories about relatives my folks knew, and even more interesting learning more about some whom I had also been blessed to know.

A recurring element in many of the family stories I've heard over the years has been the recognition of simpler times, far more conservative values and an appreciation of the struggles of those who came before us. When I picked up a picture of my maternal grandmother as a young woman, my mother reminded me that photo had been taken shortly after the first time she had ever gotten her hair cut (and I get the idea this was especially a comfort-stretcher for her father). The drama of women cutting off their long tresses struck me as particularly funny and sad at the same time. It reminded me of Downton Abbey, a PBS series set in the 1920's, when one of the main characters--Lady Mary--was the first at Downton to have her hair bobbed. As someone whose favorite personal hairstyle preference has always been short (even when I've worn it other lengths for variety), I'm happy our society has moved past an insistence on women maintaining long hair!

As we continued to sift through dozens of photos, seeing several people on horses and then others standing by cars which would be considered antiques today, the reality of all the modern conveniences and technological advances created in my folks' and my lifetimes came to mind. They remember childhoods spent sitting by the radio for entertainment, phone numbers with words in them, using outhouses at relatives' homes, paying a nickel to spend Saturday at the movies and lugging around really big cameras. I remember black and white television with three channels you could only change by walking up to the set, record albums you could stack on a player with a needle magnifying every scratch or speck of dust, reel-to-reel tape recorders, Super 8 movie cameras and typewriters. 

To think of life without microwaves, computers, flat screen televisions, cell phones, fax machines and loads of other gadgets upon which we've come to depend is a sad thought indeed. It's a good reminder to appreciate inventors, researchers, scientists, engineers and the like for all life's changes we've come to love. Do you have other fun nostalgic stories and/or favorite inventions you'd hate to live without? Please feel free to share them in the Comments section below and we can all appreciate life's upgrades together!

Today's Quote:

"Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different."

-- C.S. Lewis