making progress

 Today I celebrate seventy years. It's a strange thing because I don't feel like it has been seventy years. Thirty-five or forty maybe, but seventy? Must be the new math. Well age is just a number I've been told. I suppose there is some truth in that. So, I went back to look at some numbers.  I was born in 1953. That was in the twentieth century. Great grandfather Floyd was born in the 19th century and I knew him well.  The microwave oven was invented in 1954. We didn't get one at my house for another decade or so. Then in 1956 what we know today as a "hard drive" came into being. I wouldn't have one of those in my house for another forty years or so. I thought a hard drive was just a few years old then, something new.  Then in 1957 the FDA approved a pill for women's menstrual disorders. Two years later and the FDA approves the same pill for birth control. It wasn't until 1975 that Loretta Lynn sang about having the pill. Caused quite the stir at the time. I heard the FDA is going to approve some over the counter birth control pill soon, no prescription required and no minimum age. I guess it will also not be gender specific in this day and age. Yeah, sometimes I think seventy years is a very short time for things to have changed this much. Guess it's progress.

 When I was five the first commercial jet airliner took to the skies. That happened fifty-five years after the Wright bros took their first flight. That was in 1959. The jet set was born. I would take my first commercial jet flight in 1971 going to Chicago for Navy boot camp. 1960 saw the invention of the pacemaker. In sixty-five Kevlar was first manufactured. Today most Police wear vests made out of that stuff in almost every town in America. 1967 saw the first by-pass surgery. In 1972 electronic ignitions became the standard in automobiles something most mechanics of the day were skeptical about. Today it is rare to find anyone under the age of forty that even knows about points and a condenser. In 1974 Wrigley's chewing gum put a barcode on their packaging and the first things ever scanned. A personal computer, the Apple 2, appeared just three years later. Then in 1979 another amazing invention appeared, the Sony Walkman! In 1982 a 15-year-old kid makes the first computer virus called "cloner." By 1986 I'm hearing, "you've got mail" as e-mail becomes a thing. Something everyone is expected to have these days. The 1990's saw, photo shop, the world wide web, smart phones, DVD's, Bluetooth and the international space station. It was on my birthday in 1969 that man set foot on the moon for the first time. The 2000's saw PlayStation 2, Facebook, Google Maps, I-phones, the Hadron collider and the James Webb space telescope. In 2021 a malaria vaccine was developed and approved. Also, in August of 2021 the first Covid Vaccine was approved by the FDA. Three more have followed. 

 All that has happened since I was born. Doesn't seem like all that much really. Some things just went almost unnoticed by me as well. I have to think about it to remember when I first saw color television. We sure didn't have one when I was watching the Saturday morning cartoons. And now it seems like I have always had a cell phone. My first one was a flip phone provided by my employer. It was considered essential to have one, that justified the expense. Prior to that I just had a pager. Anyone remember those? Yeah, Doctors had them at first is my thinking. I do remember getting my first CD player and it was a big deal. Now my phone does it all, plays music, takes pictures, sends e-mail, acts like a library, an answering machine, a calendar and makes phone calls too! I guess we have all come a long way from that party line. I do remember getting a dial phone for the first time. Then a push button one where you could play songs with the buttons, even had a songbook for that. Guess it has been a long time after all. 

 Seventy years and counting. And today will be a day like all others, with one exception, I'll be reminded how old I am. I can even use that as an excuse for not doing something if I don't feel like it. Hey, it's my birthday. I didn't really have anything to do with that though, I was just present at the time. I showed up. In the end I suppose that is all that will be said about me as well, he showed up. And that isn't a bad thing to have said about you, in fact, I think it is about the best thing that can be said about someone. They showed up. And then afterward, they are missed. Yeah, I do like to think I'll be missed when I'm gone. Truth is, I'm not anxious to go. I would like to see how all this turns out, this thing we call life. 

 I'm thinking I just may watch some classic television shows on my phone. Now that's real progress I'd say.