Progressing From The Things That Got Us By

The white plastic General Electric AM radio provided the morning news from its perch on the pantry counter in the home of my youth.

It was out of the way and positioned so its antenna could pick up WCCO and KCUE, the only stations that didn’t have much static. In the winter we listened for school closings while eating breakfast in the adjacent kitchen. It was an important modern convenience to us and would probably still work today. I remember hearing about a dairy barn radio that was on for 90-some years.

My folks bought the radio new. But their black and white TV was a used one because TVs were expensive. A washer and dryer were expensive, too. But new ones were purchased when needed because the folks knew they’d get their money’s worth. Plus, there weren’t a lot of reliable used ones around because people kept them until they were junk.

The refrigerator was also as important as it was expensive. What it looked like was less important than its reliability. Ours was ugly but worked well. I think we had two or three of them over the years. I don’t know if they were bought new but one old one ended up at the cabin where it ran for years.

Dad bought both used and new cars over many years. He loved cars and driving. I sometimes think he had better luck with the used cars than the new ones. His first new one was a lemon. The second one was totaled in a snowstorm. Then, just as his luck was improving, his boys reached driving age and none of his cars were ever the same again.

But we got by.

Turn the Page

The next thing we knew, all sorts of new things became available and affordable. The development of the transistor brought FM stereo radios, color TVs, tape players. The folks could afford a chest freezer, a snowblower, a snowmobile, a self-propelled lawn mower, even an electric can opener. Dad used an electric shaver.

My folks were definitely not early adopters. Everyone else seemed to already have the things we were just getting. But as my older siblings left home, the folks had more money to buy stuff. My younger brother and I often reminded them of that.

Just about the time I left home in the 1970s, it seemed like America’s buying habits shifted into a higher gear. Everyone just started buying things, which was helped greatly by big box stores. In Red Wing we had Gibson’s (Pamida), K-Mart and now Walmart, Target and Menards. First it was stuff from Japan. Later, it became stuff from China. We didn’t care. We just wanted it. Now.

All of this took money, of course, but prices were now low enough that we could afford more. However, we were soon reminded that you usually get what you pay for. The quality and lifespan of appliances went south.

Pre-flatscreen TVs were still heavy and expensive. Cars were now being built to pollute less which made them run worse. They didn’t even look cool anymore and they rusted out quickly. The oil embargo of the 1970s showed us the true cost of poor gas mileage.

In the Chips

Somewhere in this morass, the digital world of “chips” arrived, organized boatloads of transistors focused on detailed tasks. Analog was out, digital was in. Personal computers, VCRs, digital watches, cordless phones. Remember the novelty and excitement of sending your first email? That and looking up some trivia in a browser was all we thought we needed.

Then came faster internet, faster chips and online shopping, opening a door to a new frontier. We are now in the midst of the marriage of the internet to personal devices. It’s called Internet 2.0, the “Internet of Things.”

Catherine and I can now remotely monitor and control numerous functions on  our electric cars including setting the climate control so it’s perfect when we leave. We can control the HVAC system and the garage doors. The time on our clocks is perfectly maintained over the air by an atomic clock. We tell Alexa what to add to our grocery list. We can remotely control lights and have the outside lights come on when approaching the driveway. The mower and snowblower are electric.

I get detailed backyard weather conditions from my weather station and I can see who’s at the front door. Our washer and dryer tell me when loads are done. My mailbox signals me when mail arrives. And, of course, we buy an enormous amount of stuff online now. Right from our lounge chairs.

Almost all of this is done on our phones or tablets. From almost anywhere. Some of it can even be done from my wristwatch.

A future generation might wonder how we got by.