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EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

 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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