2011 Another New Year

Taken with my i phone in NY.

I am welcoming the new year today and thinking back, as us old folks do, to how things have changed throughout our lives. Let's take radio. When I was growing up in Estes Park CO we couldn't get the Denver radio stations because we were in the mountains but at night we listened to KOMA in Oklahoma City that played the latest Rock and Roll! We missed a few curfews because of the time difference but we loved the music. Now we have I phones, that with a clever app, we can tune in radio stations throughout the world. Last night we were listening to a jazz station in Paris.

How about photography. I began taking pictures with a brownie box camera. Over the years I have used all sorts of cameras including slide cameras and even 8mm movie cameras as the kids were growing up. Now I use only digital cameras and the camera in my i phone that can send photos in a matter of seconds to friends and family. In order to salvage the early years of photos I now have to find someone to convert the slides to digital format, many are so old the film has darkened to just black blurs.

Then there is TV. The first television show I saw was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. One hotel in Estes Park had a TV and everyone was invited to come see this exciting broadcast. It was grainy black and white but we all thought it was amazing and wonderful. Now we are about to hook up a device to our HD TV that will allow us to use the internet on the TV so my husband can watch live streaming Nebraska football and other things we haven't even considered yet, because over 300 TV channels just isn't enough.

With the advent of Bluetooth we can have wireless keyboards and mice for our computers, ear roaches and hands free conversations in the car. We can have tiny stereo systems that will play the music or radio stations on our iphones.

We keep in touch with friends and family via facebook, email and digital photos. I even play scrabble with my daughter, who can be far away even traveling in foreign countries. I do have a couple of friends who don't own computers so we stay in touch the old fashioned way, letters written by hand and phone calls.

We are moving so fast that technology we buy today will be passe by Christmas. I wonder what new things these clever 20 something inventors will bring us this year.