YESTERDAY

My daughter was born about 47 years ago. Today, when I was walking by the credenza, where I keep a few framed photographs, one caught my eye - the very first image captured of my newborn baby girl.  It was taken right in the hospital by one of those professional portrait photography outfits, whose hungry  photographers lurked in the maternity ward halls, to snare unwary parents, especially first-timers.

But I digress...  

Why did it suddenly catch my interest, you ask?  Well, firstly because it’s black and white.  And secondly, because I started wondering how many people still keep framed photographs on display in their homes.   Then I started thinking about how much this world has changed during my lifetime.  And then I wonder what else is coming!

 My daughter arrived during ‘the transitional decade’ in the photography field, about three or four years too early, before colour became more common place and more importantly, economical for the average ‘Joe’ to afford.    

Now, modern technology, as I like to describe the world I currently live in, offers so much.  It’s quite bewildering and somehow, to me, somewhat incredible, yet not.  It also, I believe, could very well be the end of society as we know it.  

At least my daughter was born during the time that people actually still took ‘pictures’ and got them developed.  They would occasionally enlarge one or two of their favourites and have them framed, showing them off around their home, sometimes completely covering the top of that old, massive, heavy-as-hell stereo/TV cabinet combo.  

You know the kind I’m talking about – big, old black and white TV in the lower middle of the unit, sometimes concealed behind swanky sliding doors.  The record player would be in the top centre and sometimes, there would also be a built-in am/fm radio, usually on the right-hand side.  On the left side, there may be a handy bar area, with built-in compartments for a fancy, crystal decanter and matching highball glasses.

 My middle grandchild, her nose out of joint,  asked me why there were so many pictures of her older sister on display and hardly any of her.  I told her to ask her mother about the coming of the digital age.  

With the availability of affordable computers, cell phones and digital cameras, our world has changed, and not necessarily for the better.  Oh sure, cell phones come in handy, especially when you slide off the road during a blizzard but it’s only really helpful if you know where you are.  That’s where a GPS comes in handy, although, these days I think ‘smart’ cell phones have a ‘find me’ feature.  

"I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.’  Albert Einstein

My cell phone, is a little ‘flip’ phone which I get teased about, a lot.  The only thing smart about it, is the person using it.

My newest GPS (I only buy GARMIN), gives me verbal directions to wherever it is I’m going and it also has a small field at the bottom, which tells me where I’m at – bonus!  I frequently don’t know where I am when I’m out jaunting, even with this great feature, because I forget that it’s there.  In a way I think I liked it better back in the ‘olden days’.   I used to get so mis-directed that not only did I not know where I was but I didn’t even know the direction in which I was travelling.  Somehow, being so totally lost was an adventure and, eventually, I always made it home. 

Luckily, if I do slide off the road and don’t know where I am, my GPS has a ‘WHERE AM I?’ feature.  This not only tells you your elevation but also and more importantly, it gives you your coordinates in longitude and latitude degrees, which pinpoints your location precisely.  Useful to have, so emergency services can find you.  

That particular feature came in handy a few years ago when I slid into very deep, water- filled tractor tire tracks, cut into a muddy road, used mostly by farm tractors, in the back of the beyond, around Glen Huron.  That experience taught me to never go off-roading (not intentional believe me) during a rainy, spring season.  I was in those muddy ruts up to my hubcaps (nowadays called wheel covers) and even my friend, a homegrown farm girl, who drove tractors from the time she could reach the pedals, couldn’t chivvy us out.  The tow-truck operator used the coordinates to find us and was able to tow us out from about 100 feet (about 30 meters) from where we were stuck.  There was no way in hell he was going to drive his freshly washed, immaculate, glistening, white tow truck through the muck to get any closer.  That’s one adventure I will always remember.  I have not been back to that road since. 

                   

I also have a digital camera, which is slowly, but surely, being challenged by smart phones, which have a built-in camera and some even take high quality images. Even my little flip phone has a camera but I can tell you that downloading the photos and sending them is quite complicated and it makes my head hurt trying to figure it out, so I rarely use it for shooting.    

The days of having to pay for developing are dead and gone.  Now we have free software, which enables us to edit (fix) our images, and then transmit them immediately to all our friends and family.  Talk about instant gratification.  It makes me very happy, being an enthusiastic amateur photographer and rarely go anywhere without my camera at my side.  I have discarded hundreds if not thousands of images, which just aren’t very good.  Back in the ‘olden days’ I had rolls of film developed, good and bad pictures alike and paid a pricey buck for the service, only to throw out half the photographs.   

 

And then, of course, there is the world of selfies, which is another story all itself!!

 

Nowadays, if anyone has a question, the resounding response is, “Google It!”, and I do, for any number of topics.  Over the weekend for instance, I was able to fix my toilet seat and feel very proud of myself for being able to do so, after I ‘Googled It’ to figure out how.

I have a weird kind of soft-close seat I’ve never had the pleasure of adjusting before.  It was pretty simple, once I knew how.  I’ve also printed out the instructions to keep for the next time I think I’m going to toboggan off the porcelain.

So many inventions, so little time, especially when you’re in your 60s.  But along with all those inventions, comes change, big change.  Good, bad or … Stay tuned.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."  Albert Einstein

P.S.  Einstein died on April 18, 1955.  

© 2022 Phyllis Mahon aka Undercover Confidential