During my last play I went downstairs to the costume room where the kids were waiting for their show to go on (the one that my friend found so offensive) and I was waylaid by one of them who wanted to know if I had time for a survey about my childhood. I said I had a wretched childhood and was hungry all the time and they said no, no, no, this was about technology. So I sat down while they read the questions. It was quite interesting because they clearly had little idea of how much technology had changed. When they got to the question about what kind of computer did I use in school their eyes got wide when I said the computer hadn't been invented yet (not strictly true in case all you computer geeks are reading this, but you know what I mean, there was no such thing as individual computers). Well, when did you start using a computer, they asked? I had to think. I said I must have been in my mid to late 20's before I saw one and that was at my job. I think I blew their little minds out. They just could not imagine a world where there were no computers, no smart phones and all these other gadgets.
Anyway that little exercise made me start thinking. I was born in 1956 and in my half-century of living I have seen a lot of changes. Looking back, it's been quite eventful. But supposing this was 1913 and it was my 1856 counterpart who was being quizzed? What kind of questions would the kids of 1913 ask someone who was born in 1856 and what would she answer?
These are just some of the things that my 1856 counterpart would have seen by the time 1913 rolled around. She would have seen the telegraph replace the Pony Express. She would have seen the continent linked by transcontinental railroads and steam replace sail. She would have seen the invention of photography, recorded sound, motion pictures, telephone and wireless radio. She would have seen electric lights replace gas lighting which in turn replaced whale oil. Automobiles were becoming more and more common. Flight, once a dream, was now a reality. There was even a fledgling commercial airline route (it didn't last long). But no one could doubt that aviation was here to stay.
Marie Curie and others were working with the exciting new field of radioactivity. Dr. Semmelweis was promoting a radical new idea, that if doctors and nurses were to wash their hands between patients many needless illnesses and deaths could be prevented. Louis Pasteur was likewise saving lives with his pasteurization process. The secret of human ovulation and what role it had to play in conception had just been discovered. Darwin and others were turning science on its ear.
The whole world was shocked when the Titanic, supposedly unsinkable, went down with an appalling loss of life. This prompted inquiries and a new look at maritime safety. Meanwhile activists and reformers were looking at food safety and workplace safety, both new concepts.
When our middle-aged woman was born, most people of color were slaves (and if you assume she was a person of color she would have most likely been one too). By the time she was ten she had seen bloody civil war and draft riots over that war. But when it was over you could no longer buy or sell another person regardless of color or ancestry. She saw the assassination of a President. In fact she was to see several Presidents assassinated. The Native Americans were finally rounded up into reservations and the frontier declared closed. She saw women who were no longer content to stay in the background and while women hadn't won the vote by 1913 it was only a matter of time before they did.
I have only scratched the surface of what this woman who was born in the hoopskirt and crinoline era could have told her audience of school-age kids in 1913. In fact when you think about it the kind of changes she saw were similar to the kind of changes I have seen in my life. We know what lay ahead for that woman and what she would have seen if she had lived 30 or 40 more years. What will those of us born mid-century see in the next few decades of this?
Anyway that little exercise made me start thinking. I was born in 1956 and in my half-century of living I have seen a lot of changes. Looking back, it's been quite eventful. But supposing this was 1913 and it was my 1856 counterpart who was being quizzed? What kind of questions would the kids of 1913 ask someone who was born in 1856 and what would she answer?
These are just some of the things that my 1856 counterpart would have seen by the time 1913 rolled around. She would have seen the telegraph replace the Pony Express. She would have seen the continent linked by transcontinental railroads and steam replace sail. She would have seen the invention of photography, recorded sound, motion pictures, telephone and wireless radio. She would have seen electric lights replace gas lighting which in turn replaced whale oil. Automobiles were becoming more and more common. Flight, once a dream, was now a reality. There was even a fledgling commercial airline route (it didn't last long). But no one could doubt that aviation was here to stay.
Marie Curie and others were working with the exciting new field of radioactivity. Dr. Semmelweis was promoting a radical new idea, that if doctors and nurses were to wash their hands between patients many needless illnesses and deaths could be prevented. Louis Pasteur was likewise saving lives with his pasteurization process. The secret of human ovulation and what role it had to play in conception had just been discovered. Darwin and others were turning science on its ear.
The whole world was shocked when the Titanic, supposedly unsinkable, went down with an appalling loss of life. This prompted inquiries and a new look at maritime safety. Meanwhile activists and reformers were looking at food safety and workplace safety, both new concepts.
When our middle-aged woman was born, most people of color were slaves (and if you assume she was a person of color she would have most likely been one too). By the time she was ten she had seen bloody civil war and draft riots over that war. But when it was over you could no longer buy or sell another person regardless of color or ancestry. She saw the assassination of a President. In fact she was to see several Presidents assassinated. The Native Americans were finally rounded up into reservations and the frontier declared closed. She saw women who were no longer content to stay in the background and while women hadn't won the vote by 1913 it was only a matter of time before they did.
I have only scratched the surface of what this woman who was born in the hoopskirt and crinoline era could have told her audience of school-age kids in 1913. In fact when you think about it the kind of changes she saw were similar to the kind of changes I have seen in my life. We know what lay ahead for that woman and what she would have seen if she had lived 30 or 40 more years. What will those of us born mid-century see in the next few decades of this?
