Thanksgoating - Day fifteen. Disco time

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Today I’m thankful for being a child of the 70’s.

Back before the internet, social media, cell phones and digital everything… it was a good time to be a kid.

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Don’t get me wrong. I love the internet. I’ve had a long career working with computers that I am also very thankful for. But I (and I’m using this phrase far too frequently) am happy that I got to see both sides of the coin. I know life with the internet and life without it. My daughter was born with high speed internet as a given. Stream anything and everything anywhere. I’m thankful that I know what it’s like to not know what the internet is.

We rode dirt bikes without helmets. We played in the creek all day until you could hear your mom yell across the neighborhood that it was time to come home. Seatbelt? Maybe? And we survived and thrived. Encyclopedia Britannica was our google. We learned cursive. We learned typing on actual typewriters. We saved our quarters for Space Invaders and our dimes for the ice cream truck. Look, I’m a geek and I love gadgets… I’ve got drones and VR and seven or eight computers in my house. And as much as I love all the tech, I’m happy that my childhood didn’t include them.

I’ve tried to raise my daughter in a similar fashion. But it’s tough in this modern world. Her first gaming console was an Atari 2600 (kind of ridiculous on a 55” flat screen… but it worked). I built an Arcade Machine so she could experience the 80’s coin-op games of my youth. Turns out she’s a Moon Patrol girl.

I’m thankful that I got to see the development of the internet from its infancy. I remember getting a 300 baud modem for my Apple IIe and dialing into bulletin boards for the joke of the day or whatever it was they had to offer. Occasionally you would find the sysop online and you could actually send message to someone…. ON A COMPUTER!!!

In summary, I’m old. But I’m good with that.

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Hey ladies!