Grandmas

Today marks what would have been my grandmother's 92nd birthday. 92. My 'adopted grandmother' turned 93 on the third. 92 seems old. I am just over half way there. Jeez, that could make me middle age. I guess you never know when middle age is for you. You alway hope it is 50ish (or even more!).

My grandparents were born during 'the war to end all wars' (now known as WWI). There were no social networking sites, no computers, no television. Interestingly, there was wireless, and you thought that was a new concept!  In 1917/1918, wireless, was being used mostly by ships at sea, quickly moving from using dots and dashes of Morse Code to voice.  The first AM broadcast happened in 1906. In 1920, the first radio news broadcast occurred. My grandmothers were 2 and 3.

In 1928, when my g-mas were 10 and 11, the first televisions were developed in the US and Britain.
When I was 10 (in 1974), we just started using UPCs, MRIs, Word Processors, Floppy Disks, and ISPs. We were in space, practically regularly. Computers were as large as warehouses. Looking back, just the idea of a computer as small as a spiral notebook was inconceivable.

Grandma Elsie is still with us, still being amazed. Grandma (Mom's mom), died almost 17 years ago. She was simply amazed that she could order (via mail) a cassette tape, pop it into a machine and have someone read to her. I wonder what she would think about CDs or iPods. One of her living room walls was just shelves full of records and books. She would have flipped to know every one of those albums on her shelves could have fit onto one little plastic box the size of a hair comb. I can see the smile on her face now...