I was there

                                       T model up A model down.

Once our oldest son, about 8 years old, was talking to my dad about the early automobiles. Dad was telling JJ that he once had a ‘T-Model’ Ford, and never understood why the “A-Model” Ford came later.  JJ corrected his grandpa that the A model was first.  He had read that Henry Ford did have a plan and prototype he called ‘Plan A’.  But it was never produced. I forget exactly what dad said, but it was something like, “Nah, I WAS THERE when folks drove both OF THEM and the T-Model was older, I drove 'em both.”

Lately things that have come up in conversations with grandkids that shocked me into the reality that I AM OLD. Things I thought were common knowledge (Or should be). “Where is Guyana?”

  I said, “On the northern border of South America. It is beside Venezuela.  You know Where Jim Jones took his cult. Murdered a congressman and then orchestrated the largest mass suicide ever.”

“WHAT?”

“You don’t know about Jonesboro and Jim Jones?”

“Never heard of it!”

So with the help of Google we educated our youngest grandson on the incident.  I remember saying, 'that cannot be, over 900 suicides!' (I wasn't there, but I was alive to see it in the news!)

 I think of my parents. They were ten years old before they saw an automobile. They lived before airplanes and lived to see a man on the moon. They SAW a world at war TWICE and lived thru the great depression while raising a family.

Those changes were from 1900 to 1960-70.  Now for today's kids Technology will change that much in three years. The youth today cannot fathom a ‘typewriter’ or know what ‘Hang up the phone’ actually meant. Folks hated it when the dial phone came in. There was no longer that friendly voice asking, "NUMBER PLEASE?" We who were around in the late 1930-1950 era stay ‘behind the curve’ on today’s technology. Most old folk will say, ‘The smart phone is too smart for me!’ (If they have one)

I am not complaining (too much! ;-)). There have always been changes, and the older generations have always resented some of them. I appreciate many changes i.e. today’s auto engines are much better.  Some changes I despise because I cannot find the handle, and there is no ‘directions’ booklet to read (IT’S ON LINE!).

Nite Shipslog

 1903 ford, the year dad was born.

1972 LTD The year my dad passed

What a change in cars.... What a change in the world.