A kid told me the other day they remembered when cassettes were used and of course I laughed since I go all the way back to the Vinyl days which we call record players / records.  Sure it is nostalgic but remember when telephones were party lines and you only had to dial 2 or 3 numbers to call someone.  Now for you young folks a party line is when multiple houses used one telephone line and only one person could talk at a time amongst several houses.  When I was a kid we had the Harris, Shumate, Murphy and our house on one phone line with separate phone numbers for each house.  In fact I remember Paul and Billie Jones (dad of Debbie, Paula and David) did not have a phone and you would have to call them on a two way radio.  I always thought that was amazing considering Paul was the only person in Grainola to have an airplane.  I guess it was because they lived so far out in the country they could not even get a telephone line and poles installed.  Anyway back to the party line, there was courtesy that was implied to be used at all times because you could pick up the telephone at any time and listen in on conversations.  Pretty crazy things have changed for the better.

As nostalgia takes me back it is fun to think of what is new since I was a kid and here is a list:

• color TV 
• cable TV
• Touch tone phones as they were rotary meaning you had to dial every number, very slow
• FM radio, much less electronic media to play something already recorded
• 8 track tape which was for your car which was before cassette tapes which is before CD players
• Cell phones
• social media
• Internet
• computers which is before laptops and remember the first portable computer which weighed about 30 pounds and was as big as  a medium size piece of luggage with a screen about 6 inches squared
• Electric windows in your car
• my first computer I worked on had 8k memory, yes and it was about 10 feet long and it would only read computer cards called decks.  actually before the cards was a paper tape machine which was a pain in the neck because it had to be perfect.
• We could take our guns to school and show them off to our friends and at lunch we could go out and shoot them
• During recess we could take our knives out of our pockets and create contests
• There were winners and losers in everything 
• There was no air conditioner in the schools and we went to school when it was hot or cold
• If you got in trouble in school it was assumed your were guilty and were punished again when you got home
• Parents were respected and always right or at least you never told them they were wrong
• I had one pair of good shoes for church and one for work which most of the time were used for school as well.  Good shoes were for church and funerals and never to be worn outside to work or play
• If there was a hole in your pants or the elbow of your shirt it was patched the same day and you wore it for what seemed forever.
• plastic bags

Well the list goes on and on but what is interesting is I asked my mom what was new before me that was the first for her and here is her list:

• milk bought at the store
• tennis shoes or basketball shoes with rubber soles rather than leathere
• TV
• Cars
• Telephones
• electricity in the house
• indoor toilets vs. an out house and the indoor toilet was a water closet where there was a bucket under a board with a hole in it where you sat to go to the bathroom.
• Indoor water
• HOT water at the sink that was not heated on a gas stove
• electric stoves
• electric dryers
• electric wash machines
• electric irons for ironing clothes
• indoor bathtubs
• Hot baths indoors from a faucet
• instant potatoes and pancakes mixes and cake mixes or just mixes bought in a store
• heat throughout the house vs. a single pot bellied stove to heat the house
• heated bedrooms

and the list goes on and on.

WOW!  So what made the difference?  Freedom and free enterprise, competition to make life better and a work ethic expecting to work hard then get paid, not getting paid then working harder.   Sure there were bad things that happened that had to be worked through and that is where unions and government intervention really did help to make things fair and safe but let us remember that a good thing can sometimes be too good of a thing.  Sure we would all like there to be no stress and an easy  life but I personally like a system that gives incentives to those who work harder and sometimes people just get lucky with being at the right place at the right time.  I just love America and I like the idea that those who take a risk get rewarded also knowing that risk means they lose everything and there is no bail out.  God bless America and thank you to everyone that came up with new ideas and who took a risk and those who went to war to fight for what is right.  I also have to thank God that he provided a sacrifice for my sin.

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• If you allow man to exercise their minds they can solve almost any problem
• People work hard to make things easier so we should think of stress as a blessing
• The easy way out may not be the best way out 
• If you list the disasters of life (tragedies) on one side and list how each effected your life later I bet you there was a lot of good out of each tragedy.  I know that is true for me.

Thanks for listening,

gary@thepioneerman.com