Modern Times? Where Did They Go?

You know, it was a big deal when cake mixes were invented, and TV and toasters. I don’t think kids today appreciate what a big break through preservative were.

Well, I remember moldy bread and green hot dogs, thank you, and I haven’t died yet from anything weird ending in the letters “hyde.”

When I was little I had to put my toast in the oven and turn it over midway.

That was partly because my mother would never buy a toaster, but it was a big deal when we did.

But now the pendulum has swung and I’m starting to see more and more parents who won’t let their kids watch TV and have to have everything homemade. My grandkids in California aren’t allowed to bring packaged treats to school birthday parties, they have to either get them from a bakery or make them themselves. No one appreciates preservatives anymore.

There was such excitement in the fifties about being modern. Modern art, Katherine Hepburn’s clothes, Ford Thunderbirds with that little round hole on the side. Everything was new and exciting. It was going to be a different world.

It was so exciting to sit at my grandmother’s and watch that first teeny square of light that was a TV show. The first space ships were the stuff of dreams.

Everyone my age has thought about their grandparents going from the horse and buggy right into the space age.

I don’t miss having to hide under my desk in case there was an atomic bomb dropped on St. John’s grade school in Denver. And school movies were excruciatingly boring with that film machine that went clickclickclick the whole time.

But no one uses the word modern anymore to describe what’s happening. Modern is supposed something that’s never happened before. What have you seen lately that’s never been seen before?

A new Blackberry app is cool, but tomorrow there will be another new one even cooler. Everything is the same thing with just a little twist—the newest I-Pad is interesting, but it’s not like no one has ever seen one before.

I wouldn’t for a second want to go back to a world with no Internet or cell phones. I’m not a reactionary, but is it too much to want something to take my breath away again?