The Word - Vol 65

I’m certain every generation that’s come after the Baby Boomer Generation is really tired of hearing from us. After all, we are very special. Just ask us! We have lived in some wonderful times, and we don’t mind telling the rest of the world all about it. How could they not love us? I say that all with a smile, but we have been through some amazing times.

I received an interesting list of Boomer-type facts from my friend Rick Forchuk. You might know Rick from his media appearances on TV, radio, or print. Maybe from the Insurance Business, or maybe you’ve attended one of his motivational speaking engagements? He’s been a longtime friend, and a regular reader of The Word, and that in itself makes him very special. 

The list starts off by pointing out that if you were born in the 40’s, 50’s or 60’s it meant you grew up in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.  You were probably dating and or got married in the ’70s, '80s and '90s.  And are now going through the 2020s.  Which is a pretty remarkable ride.  

We’ve lived through 8 different decades, 2 different centuries, and 2 different millennia, and just think of the changes we’ve seen. If you were like me, your home telephone probably had a “party line” so you shared the phone line with neighbours. And if you wanted to place a long-distance phone call, you had to get in touch with the telephone operator to put the call through. Now you can do that yourself, or it can be a video call and it can all be done on your cell phone! I remember only Dick Tracy could do something like that! 

We’ve gone from vinyl records to 8-tracks to cassettes and into the digital age and online music. And from handwritten letters that you would take to the post office or mailbox and if you were lucky it got to the recipient within a week, then you’d have to wait another week for a return letter. Now, it’s instant communication with email. We listened to the radio, then watched in amazement something called TV, first black and white then colour, and now HDTV on an 80-inch screen! 

​We were introduced to the first computers that were as big as a bus, and now we have handheld cell phones that do almost everything, and iPads that are just as amazing. Remember when just about everyone had a camera to capture photos on a roll of film that would be taken to the drug store to be developed, only to discover upon pickup that only half of the pictures were in focus! It wasn’t all that long ago! Now, it’s all done on our cell phones, and if you don’t like the result, you hit delete and take the picture again, print it at home, or skip that and just add it to your photos on your computer. We were born in an analog world and are now in a digital adulthood.  

I feel like I’m stating the obvious here, we’ve hashed all of this out many times, but I think the fact that we’ve faced, and have dealt with this much change in a lifetime is quite remarkable. Our generation has lived through and witnessed more than any other generation. We’ve had to adapt to this change, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job.

All of the changes we’ve seen seem to have happened so fast!  The years have flown by. My wife celebrated her 60th birthday last year, and she deemed it the “Yes year.” We’re running out of time to say “No” to anything! Time doesn’t stop! We can’t stop doing things we like to do. We can’t stop sharing good times with our good friends.  

And it has been said “We’re no longer at an age to postpone anything. Let’s all make it a “Yes Year” every year!

Till Next Week...
Wayne

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