Everything Old Is New Again, Or Maybe Not, first published in LDR back in 2012.
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN….OR MAYBE NOT
In a few days we will be ringing in a new year and once again there
will be the juxtaposition between the old and the new.
When we converted to natural gas last month, my husband bought a gas
cooking stove, the first one we’ve had since early marriage. I grew
up with one but was so excited when we were able to get a modern
electric range, which I soon found were just not as good with keeping
cooking temperatures regulated, so I’m excited to be cooking on what I
once considered “old fashioned” again.
Even food preferences change. I remember back in the 60’s when
boneless hams were all the rage at church dinners and parties - I
guess because they were new and expensive. But I eventually realized
that bone-in hams really had a better taste, even though they were out
of fashion for a while.
And those little baby carrots that came already cleaned in the plastic
bags? After using them a few times, I acknowledged that even though
plain old whole carrots were much more work to prepare, they certainly
tasted more like carrots when cooked in a pot roast.
And then there are those situations where it seems we get in a rush
to embrace new technology only to find in some ways we are regressingby doing so.
When I was growing up, we had one telephone in the house. When it
rang, everybody ran to get it, even if it meant running downstairs or
coming in out of the yard. Sometime after Milan and I were married,
we finally got two phones–the second one being in the bedroom. We
were so modern.
Then we moved to a bigger house, and cheap phones available at
Walmart and modular plugs made it easy to install more phones and we
went crazy. I had my insurance office at home and needed them because
when you make your living selling insurance you don’t dare risk
missing a phone call. I loved the convenience of having a phone in
every room.
Now I’m back to chasing the elusive cell phone all over the house. I
prefer to use my Blackberry for all calls because of the time-saving
and record-keeping functions it has. But one phone in the whole house
is a strange measure of progress.
I remember a recent cartoon where the teenage son had tied a string to
the cordless phone, effectively tethering it to the base unit, so he
could always find it. He was so proud of himself, showing his
invention to his father who of course found it humorous that in the
“old days” the r eceiver was always connected to the phone by a cord!
While shopping at a yard sale years ago with my granddaughter, who was
about 6 at the time, she picked up an ice cube tray and asked me what
it was. I explained how we would fill them with water, put them in
the freezer, and when we needed ice cubes, we pulled the handle to
loosen them. She was fascinated by that and asked me to let her buy
one for her mother who she was sure would rather have that than the
ice dispenser on the door of their refrigerator.
The other granddaughter watched me take one of my LP records out of
the cover one day to play on our phonograph and made the comment that
“Nana and Papa must really be rich” because we had such large Cds.
Later on she referred to it as “reversible” when she noticed we could
play both sides.
Milan keeps a working rotary dial phone on the counter at the
barbershop. He loves it when a teenager asks to use the phone (which
they rarely do anymore since all kids have cell phones) but when it
happens, the teenager will look at it and inevitably ask, “How do you
work it?”
When it comes right down to it, I’m caught in the mix between the old
and the new. I’m old enough that I prefer some things from the past,
but I am thankful every day that I am able to have access to and the
ability to use all the new technology. I would never want to go back
to the conditions in my first job in the Low & Honssinger Law offices
where we used old upright manual typewriters to type all the legal
documents, original and 5 carbon copies, please, and there were no fax
machines, no photocopying equipment, and all urgent documents had to
be “walked” to the courthouse. I often think how much fun it would be
to be a legal secretary now with all the new-fangled office equipment
available.
© Joan Rowden Hart
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