Nostalgia

When I was growing up, one of my favorite things to do with my sisters and friends in the neighborhood was to walk to our local Wilson Farms convenience stores for candy. Granted, this walk usually tired me out, but it was only about 2 1/2 blocks away, and we usually took our time getting there, and going back. We almost always took the same route, so we were pretty familiar with houses on the way, and the animals we'd meet, and the people we might see. We even nicknamed Wilson Farms "WIF," so when one of us felt like going there, we'd just say, "Does anyone want to walk to WIF?" We bought so much candy there, and even ice creams and other snacks, and I love the memories of just going there often. 

I've noticed in the last few months that "WIF" has been changing over to 7-11 covenience stores, and it makes me a little sad. There will no longer be a Wilson Farms that I grew up with, and even continue to go there once in awhile nowadays. 7-11 stores still sell many of the same sort of items, but it's just....different. I guess I'll always just have to hold on to the memories I have about the journeys we took to WIF, and hope that 7-11 will bring memories to another group of kids in the future!

The nostalgia of something old from my past got me thinking about how every generation has something that they used to love, and that is now just a memory. My parents grew up with 45's, and my generation saw cassette tapes and then CDs. My parents were thrilled when black and white televisions were available with a few channels. My generation had color tvs with tons more stations to watch. Radios evolved from simple players to huge boomboxes to Walkmans, then CD players, and now mostly digital. It's just amazing how things have changed so much in such a relatively short time!

I was trying to think of what has changed the MOST (in my opinion) in the last couple decades, and I would have to say it's been the telephone. When I was growing up, this is the phone we had in the kitchen:

It was never really fun to be tethered to the kitchen when trying to have a conversation in private, when everyone else was around! lol Eventually my sister, Lisa, and I bought a cordless phone to have in the computer room, and wow, that was a  nice change!!

This picture shows an upgraded version of a cordless phone, which I decided to use since I couldn't find the chunkier phone we bought. We were able to go anywhere in the house with that phone, and didn't have to worry about trying to share secrets while someone else was around!

When I moved out of my parents' house, I had my grandfather's old corded telephone that I kept in the computer room, and also a cordless phone that I bought. I don't really remember why I had both types. lol But from 1999-2003, that's what I used on a constant basis!

Cellphones started coming out, I don't remember what year, but I never had the first version of one, which sorta looked like this: 

I can't even imagine what it was like trying to use that whopping phone!! And how did anyone carry that thing around?? When cellphones started getting "smaller," I had started going back to school for my Masters' degree, and I bought a prepaid cellphone, which kinda looked like this (and which I still actually have!!):

It wasn't as big as the previous picture, but it still was a chunky phone! I carried it around in my backpack, and I did use it mostly when I was away from home. It served it's purpose, which was something to have with me just in case of an emergency!

In 2003, I was highly interested in having a cellphone for the purpose of getting rid of my home phone. So, I got my first non-prepaid phone from Verizon! It pretty much looked like this:

It was pretty basic, and allowed me to stay connected no matter where I was! And even since then, cellphones have progressively gotten better and more technical and useful (or detrimental??) to so many people. The basic cellphone developed into a smartphone, Apple being one of the first (if not the first) to introduce a phone that could basically be your computer as well.

I did not dive into the smartphone world until January 2011, when I upgraded my latest phone (which had been one with a qwerty keyboard, like a little typewriting right on your phone!), and I seriously can't imagine going back!! I did not buy an iPhone, because I'm not an Apple fan, but I got a Droid. I can't believe what it can do besides call people!! I can email, send texts, use apps of all sorts, play games by myself or games with people, surf the internet, watch Youtube videos, and so much more. I have no need for a laptop if I really wanted to go without one, but I'd have to say that getting rid of my laptop would not allow me for creative blog posting such as this. lol Anyway, my Droid is with me wherever I go, even in the house. Well, except for my bathroom, because sadly I had a bad water event with one of my cellphones a few years ago (it was the victim of a toilet drowning, even though after a month of drying out, it was ok!!). 

So there it is, my observation of the fastest changing object in the history of the world (in my opinion), the telephone! And I didn't even start at the very beginning, either!! All because I was feeling a little nostalgic with my trips to WIF way back in the day. :)