(from Workchic.com)
Happy New Year to ALL my friends! Since today, we start a brand new year, 2010, I thought this topic would be appropriate to chat about.
I get some great blog post ideas from my local newspaper and I was reading yet another article in the paper recently, this one by Jocelyn Noveck from The Associated Press. It was a recap of 50 things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millennium. You can read the full article here.  You’ll need to click over and read the list so they will all make sense to you! There are reprints of it all over the internet and you may have already seen this, but I thought it was purely fascinating.
When you think about it, things have changed tremendously in the last 10 years. Heck, I’ve lived long enough to see MAJOR changes in lifestyle during my 50+ years on this planet and I know many of you have too. You younger girls don’t know what you’ve missed. 🙂 To name a few:
- TV in everyone’s homes was not the absolute norm when I was a child. We got our first black and white console TV (complete with rabbit ears) back around 1963, when I was in the 2nd grade and I still remember the cartoon that was on when my Dad plugged in that bad boy and there in front of our little eyes, in our own livingroom, in living “black and white” 🙂 the rooster cartoon, Foghorn Leghorn was on. It was a momentous day for me and my sister. Our family life was changed forever, when we watched Bonanza and Gunsmoke all together every single week.
- From 45 records and vinyl LP’s to 8-track players to CD’s and DVD’s. Do I feel old now?! I totally remember stacking up those 45 records of the Top hits back in the day. The Monkees, Bobby Sherman, Herman’s Hermits, Jackson 5, oh my, the memories of all that. You haven’t experienced music until you hear the scratch of the needle on vinyl. 🙂 Every teenager had one of these old record players for their rooms.
(those precious IBM Selectric typewriters we all loved)
- I do believe we had electric typewriters in high school when I learned to type, but they weren’t that sophisticated back then. My first job was using an electric typewriter and I remember being thrilled when the Selectric III’s came out with auto-erase. Remember that, you old people like me? 🙂 Remember carbon paper (ewwww!).  I vividly remember one of my first real jobs in a commercial real estate office in Atlanta, back in the mid-80’s. I was perfectly happy with my sleek and stylish Selectric III and could do anything on that machine (I typed 90+ wpm). They brought me in my own PC using Displaywrite (word processing software). I had to learn it or else and for about 3 months, I just wanted to cry, it was so hard. After the learning curve though, I fell in love with my new computer and did not look back. I couldn’t have lived without it. All of my computer knowledge back then was learned ON THE JOB. Those of you who got to learn it in school are SO fortunate.
- Cellphones for all! I was a holdout and didn’t get my own cellphone til 2002, not all that long ago really. Now, of course, I love it and couldn’t live without it.  It’s funny to watch old reruns of Miami Vice and see them on their carphones. Those big old clunky phones of the mid-80’s are really funny now, but I sure do remember those days.
OK, enough of my memories!  Let’s get on with the 50 things that have changed our lives this decade, in alphabetical order.
- Airports
- Alternative medicine
- Apps
- AARP cards for boomers
- Aging
- Blog (I blog, you blog, he blogs, how did we spend our time before blogging?)Â Good question!
- BlackBerrys
- Book clubs
- Cable
- Cameras
- Celebrity culture
- Cell phones
- Chefs
- Connectivity
- Cougars (not the 4 legged kind)
- Crocs
- Dancing
- Dating
- DVRs
- Embarrassment entertainment
- Fat
- Foodie
- Going green
- GPS
- Helicopter parenting
- Information overload (I’ll amen that one)
- Instant gratification
- iPods
- Life coaches
- Musicals
- Netflix
- Organic
- Pregnancy chic
- Reality TV
- Recession chic
- Retro chic
- Sexting (oh my, I’ve heard about this!)
- Starbucks
- Tattoos
- Texting
- TV screens
- Tween culture
- Uggs
- Wii
- Wikipedia
- Yoga
- YouTube
So, how about that list? To get the full recap on all of them, click over and read the article and they will all make sense when you read the explanations. The writer elaborates on all 50 items and it’s very interesting to see where we are after 10 years and makes you wonder what the next 10 years will bring. Feel free to comment on any or all of these.
I can see the good things and the bad things about technology and how far we’ve come, can’t you? I’m looking forward to a fresh and new year in 2010. How about you?
Don’t forget next Wednesday, January 6th, we are having a BIG party, Top Projects of 2009, complete with Before and After pics. Click here for all the details. All you need to do is write up a post with YOUR favorite projects that you completed in 2009 and share them on your blog. Come over on the 6th and link up to the party (please link back to the party post, once it is live). You can use the button or not. Last year we had 100 participate and it was so much fun to see what everyone had completed for the year. I have picked my Top 10 Faves to recap and share again. It’s gonna be fun, so don’t miss out! I do not want to party alone! 🙂
Times have changed. I was talking to a friend who lost her grandmother this year and her husband lost his grandparents both within 5 months. We talked about what we learned from these grand folks and how technology has changed. Kozue’s great grandfather was a komono maker in Japan. We rely on machines to do everything for us today. I hate seeing the wonderful artful things disappear. Having been involved with Princess House for over 13 years I am deeply saddened to see the disappearing hand blown items. They say there are not enough crafter’s left. Look at a homemade quilt or apron. A hand weaved basket. I long for those old days. I just think a whole generation will not have those wonderful hand crafted items and they will never know what they are missing. But I am hopeful 2010 will be a grand year and wish you well moving quickly into it. God Bless You!
Rhoda, I do remember all of these and it is amazing how our lives have changed with technology. Why less than a year ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was! LOL Now it’s a big thing in my life. ~ Happy New Year!
Sarah
Rhoda,
I think you and I must be around the same age…I remember so many of the same things. I remember faithfully watching Leave it to Beaver every morning before heading off to school. 🙂 Sometimes I wonder if t.v. has been such a great thing. I wonder what everyone did before t.v. and internet/blogging…hard to remember, isn’t it? Did we read more books? Ummm…
Susan
What an interesting article! I went over and read the whole thing and, my, this past decade has brought so much change!!
I have to apologize to you too! All this time I have been commenting spelling your name wrong!!! I am working on my Before ‘/after blog and read your name right for the first time!! So sorry Rhoda!!
blessings
mary
Happy New Year, Rhoda! Great post for today. I may have to look back and see if I accomplished any fantastic projects this year….hmmm….if I don’t, though, I’ll certainly be by on the 6th to see what everyone ELSE did! 😉
I remember these things as well. BTW, as a science teacher for a number I years (I’m not saying) helicopter parents are well known to me. These parents “hover” around/over the kids all the time even into adulthood. It is funny and tragic at the same time.
Best wishes to you and your family in 2010 and ROLL TIDE ROLL
happy new year to you and your family .
LOL @ #15. 🙂
And ten years ago I wouldn’t have even been able to interpret what I just typed above!! Ha!
There was more thrifting than projects at the shore house in year two at the shore house, but 2010 promises to be a year chock full o’ projects…many contractors have walked through this house in the past month…taking notes and crunching numbers. Gulp!!
Happy officially New Year! Here’s to health, happiness and good thriftin’ in 2010! 🙂
I love following your blog. I listed your brass to bronze light fixture on my Top 10 Picks from Blogland 2009. Check it out: http://blackcopperdiy.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-top-10-blogland-posts-from-2009.html
All the best in 2010!
Just wanted to wish you all the best in this New Year!! Thank you SO much for stopping by my blog. Your comment was so sweet and really made my day!!!
Best,
Grace
You’re telling me! I thought I’d have a flying car by now! LOL! Happy New Year, have a great 2010!~
Wow! You’re right – so much has changed in 10 years. My biggest change is having 2 little girls at home to an empty nest in 2010. I’m not sure how I’m going to adjust. Time flies!
Looking forward to your big party and seeing the links!
Happy New Year Rhoda!
Dear Ronda,
I just wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed your blog. I have spend a lot of time looking at the pictures of your home over and over again. Much time spent at work looking at them, to the point I was worried about getting in trouble. I finally have a computer at home now and can look all I want. You have such a gift for decorating, one I have always wished I had. Your home is so beautiful.
warm wishs, Wenda
My husband and I talk about what it will be like for our 15 yr. old son when he is our age. When you look at what has happened just since we got married 18 yrs. ago, it is mind blowing. I know that for me, the internet and tivo are the two things that I would NOT want to live without.
It always amazes me when I stop and think how quickly things do change. Imagine how Grandma Eleanor feels! I loved this post Rhoda and reread it a few times. I think the list above should include piercings. I sometimes wonder what nursing home residents will look like in another 50 – 60 years all sporting indecipherable tatoos and belly button or nose rings.
I am going to check out that online conference. Sounds interesting.
Rhoda just had to pop in and tell you I got Patricia Cornwall’s newest book for Christmas….have you read ??? If not it was really, really good. Loved it.
FYI
Kathy 🙂