Dear Jackrabbit,
Here we are again looking at some of the differences between then and now. Yesterday I did a couple of mundane things like call a store and take a picture and thought about how much a difference fifty years make. Now, in 1967 I was not taking pictures nor making phones calls. In all likelihood, I was doing the exact thing you’re trying to do right now, i.e., fit the couch in your mouth.
“Pater, your prevarications will one day catch up to you and I fear will lead to an unfortunate end. Payphones? Camera film? Flashbulbs? I was not born yesterday.”
When I was your age, ‘twould have been 1967, if I wanted to find a number and call it while on the road I would have to, first, keep an eye open for a pay phone and pull over. From there, I’d have to see if there was a phone book available. (A phone book was a directory of local phone numbers–usually divided into residential addresses and business addresses.) Chances are, there would be no phone book. One could dial 4-1-1 and request the number. In 1967 this was a free service, although I don’t recall if it was free from phone booths. And don’t forget–you’d have to have a nickel, later a dime, and even later a quarter to make that call.
Today we were out and I wondered when a certain store closed. I took out my phone, called up the web browser, looked up the business name, had the web browser initiate the call, and found out when they closed. Your mother could have done it even easier by pressing one button on the steering wheel, tell the car the business it was looking for, then have it dial her phone and work everything over the speakers.
Man, technology. I bet this will seem very quaint to you in fifty years.
Another example…
When I was your age in order to take a photograph I would have to use an actual camera–a device that was not connected to a phone of any kind–and take a picture. The picture was stored on film–mostly likely black and white film as we’re talking 1967. Ten years later color would be more common, and ten years after that color would be the standard and cheaper to have developed than black and white. And that’s right… I’d have to take the film–once all 24 or 36 available pictures on that roll had been taken–to a business which would develop that film for me and print them as individual pictures. For money. A decent amount of money. If I wanted copies, I had to make sure I kept the negatives.
If you wanted to share that picture with a friend you would have to go to their house and hand it to them. Or maybe mail it.
Oh, if you needed a flash, you had to buy flashbulbs separately.
In any case, nowadays, my “phone” can take high-resolution full color pictures and store thousands of them. I can share them with one person or millions with a few short actions on the phone. There is even video. Flash included and automatic. Cameras still exist. We have a rather nice one. It’s all digital. I don’t remember the last time I touched a piece of film.
Another example…
Looking for someplace? Better have a paper map in 1967. It’s like a bird’s eye view of the area with the roads all labelled. If you were driving a long distance, you might for to AAA and get a triptych which was a set of detailed driving directions. God help you if there was construction and detours on any of those routes AAA directed you to.
Of course now the car comes loaded with a GPS system. Say where you want to go, and a little map pops up showing your progress and giving you turn-by-turn directions. It even estimates how long it will take to get there. And hey… there’s that phone thing again. My phone has a maps feature that does pretty much the same thing–and can even give directions for traveling by foot or bus.
Again, fifty years from now this will seem pretty quaint to you.
And to make a car reservation? Well, they’d make you enter a room with around twelve other people and one car.
One car. And you had to fight for it. Winner got to rent it. The runner-up had to pay for the insurance.
Nowadays it’s much more civilized and advanced. It’s still a room with twelve people, but now there are two cars.
Again… super quaint, right? In fifty years, it’ll probably be jetpacks or something, but you’ll still be fighting for them arena-style. My advice is to go for the legs first. Knock ’em down and finish it quickly.
Always good advice.
All my love,
–Dad
