Isn’t it amazing how things that were luxuries just yesterday quickly become necessities in our lives?

                It wasn’t all that long ago that farm work was done with wagons and teams of horses, oxen or mules. A fellow named Henry Ford came along and spent a long time and a lot of money convincing skeptical farmers that his mechanical tractor was far more efficient and much more labor-saving than the organic mechanisms that eat hay and grain. Tractors were stronger, easier to use, didn’t need medical attention, and didn’t need to have their stalls mucked out every couple of days.

       I thought about this today when I was mucking out the horse stalls with my Kioti tractor.

       It wasn’t until the early 1950’s, just sixty short years ago, that the entire of the country became electified. Up until that point, many rural areas were still "in the dark."

      I am old enough to remember when personal computers were brand new.  Before Jobs and Wozniak, a computer of any power wouldn’t fit into the average living room without the aid of a crowbar and a shoe horn. (I know. I know.  – “What’s shoe horn?” Sheesh!!!!)  

      I mean, I can actually remember thinking that the brand new word software was stupid, and would never catch on.

    When writing term papers in college, I would use a Smith Corona portable elecric typewriter. Most term papers were about about 20 to 30 pages long.  Most of my professors wouldn’t accept a paper that had more than three misspellings or erasures per page. Many a time, when I was on the last paragraph of a page, the entire sheet had to be ripped from the paper carriage and disgarded because of the third  spelling error. 

      With the Apple 2 C, you could write on ether and use SpelChek to correct your spelling, grammar and syntax. Then, when you were sure everything was perfect, you could print out the entire manuscript with the touch of a key!

     How did we ever get along without the computer? And yet many people resisted the invention.

     When the internet came into the vogue a few years back, I remember thinking to myself that I would NEVER use the thing.  NEVER! It was superfluous – an extravagance I would never need and certainly never use.  And, well, here I am writing a blog post.

     About a dozen years ago, I broke away from the grand old, well established theater company in the area, and started my first independent theater group. Most of the advertizing was done via the internet and email.  When my computer died  three weeks before a big show, I was panic-struck! How was I going to get all of those ticket orders????

    When’s the last time you bought a car that didn’t have power windows, power brakes, power steering or automatic door locks?  I remember buying my first new car, and air conditioning and automatic transmission were options that cost extra.

     This morning I woke up and found that the battery on my cell phone was dead, and the charger was at my office at work.  Today is Sunday.  That meant that I would have to go ALL DAY without my cell phone!

     How in the hell was I to get by without ONE SINGLE TEXT MESSAGE all day long??!!

     I panicked.  I literally had the claustrophobic sensation that I was totally cut off from the world! I felt compelled to get on my computer and email everybody I knew, telling them that if they wanted to reach me today, they’d have to call me on my land line! And I’ve made it a point all day to check my voice mail message machine every time I come into the house to see if I missed an important phone call!

     Now seriously, what could be so important that I have to worry about being out of touch with my friends and acquaintances for such a short period of time?

    Incredible, isn’t it?