I had never given much thought to the changes that she had seen in her life time. Born in 1893, she lived through some pretty severe changes in world politics, and life in general! I'm just going to try to touch on some of the physical changes in her world for this page. The political changes would have to wait for a book! Several volumes worth!

Granny was born into a world that didn't have many of the amenities that we take for granted today. The changes that she witnessed in her life amaze me! For instance within just a couple of years of her birth, toilet paper and zippers were invented! The flush toilet had been around for over 100 years, and they just got around to the paper work! *s*

When she was born, the typewriter (a very primitive one) was only 26 years old, and by the time she passed away there were personal computers! I wonder what she would think of lap tops and cell phones? The first cell phone network came about the year she died.

From the first gas powered automobiles, to the first diesel engine trucks, the history of the cars in her lifetime alone is fantastic! Couple that with the beginnings of aviation, right on to the jet engines and SPACE TRAVEL! She never imagined that she would watch television let alone that she would watch about anything REAL about traveling in space! But I remember watching the news programs with her in the 60's when the first man stepped on the moon.

Where would we be today without air conditioning, forced air furnaces, hair dryers? None of these came around until she was an adult. Can you imagine growing up without these today? She didn't even know what a Crayon was until she was nearly grown, and then her family couldn't afford such luxuries on a farmers wages.

There was no such thing as an electric washing machine until 1910. The year her first child (my grandmother) was born, and even then they were a far cry from what we have today! You have not lived until you have used a wringer washing machine! *g*

As I sit here looking around my house, I see all of the things that I take advantage of everyday of my life, and I think I finally understand why the things that my Granny had were so dear to her. I guess it's time to go into my kitchen and put something in that marvelous microwave, after I take it out of my freezer or open it with my cordless can opener. Then I think I will start having little chats with my grandchildren so that they will know what life was like for me in the 20th century!

One last thing in closing. My Granny used to say there were only two things that we would want to take back and can't; words and time. Please use both wisely!

Thanks to the perseverence of "a few" we have managed to get to where we are today, in spite of...

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?"
--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
--Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
--Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
--David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."
--A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
--H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."
--Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
--Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
--Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"
--Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training."
--Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
--Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
--Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".
--Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon".
--Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981



Home