Historical Perspectives

Yep, this is me and my girlfriend in 1983, just two

years before we were wed..

Note the Adam Ant t-shirt I am wearing.

 

I recently read about a young family - husband, wife, and two kids – who, from April 2013 through April 2014, are living like it’s twenty seven years earlier, in 1986, the year they were born. The reason is to teach their young, technology-obsessed children what it was like to live in a time with “no computers, no tablets, no smart phones, no fancy coffee machines, no Internet, no cable, and – from the point of view of many tech-dependent folks – no life.”

They have banned any technology from post-1986.

And they dress the part, too.

What a bunch of crazies, eh? Thinking they can live in the past!

Wait – did I just say that??

Anyhow, my first reaction was “Really? "Back to" 1986? Somehow I never thought of 1986 as being so different from today. To me that year wasn't all that long ago. Not enough for major changes. But after reading a news article about what these people were doing I suppose it is a lot more different than I thought.

And that’s when my mind began to click and clack in such a way to help me put it all into perspective:

1986 – rotary phones - - - - 2013 – iphones/smart phones

1986 – encyclopedias - - - - 2013 – internet

1986 – folding paper maps - - - - 2013 – gps

1986 – vhs - - - - - - - - - - - 2013 – blueray/dvr/downloads

1986 – tablet of paper - - - - 2013 – tablet: a touch screen mobile computer

1986 – 35 mm and Polaroid Cameras - - - - 2013 - digital cameras

1986 – letter writing - - - - - 2013 – e-mail and texting

1986 – 19 “ TV - - - - - - - - 2013 – 60” plasma TV

1986 - radio - - - - - - - - - -  2013 - Sirius radio

Oh, and there’s plenty more changes, but you get the idea.

And then my historical mind took it a step further, and it steamed and hissed as I mentally placed myself in 1913 – a hundred years ago – and began to consider the changes from the same amount of time as the folks mentioned above: twenty seven years previous, from 1913 to 1886.

The most obvious of the changes hit me first, and that would be the automobile in 1913 in comparison to 1886, where the horse & carriage was the main mode of travel. And then there’s the electric light, which was literally in only a handful of homes in 1886, for gas lights still reigned. But by 1913, the electric light was in most urban homes and finding its way into rural homes more and more.

And speaking of electricity, by 1913 a full range of electrical appliances were in use in homes nationwide (again, mainly in the cities and larger towns): vacuums, washing machines, toasters, hot plates, ranges, flat irons, heaters, hair dryers, curling irons, and more.

How about the specialty local photographer in 1886 in comparison to the Brownie camera, which became available to all budding home photographers by the early 1900’s and proved to be very popular? Now anyone could take your picture!

Speaking of photographs, there was no such thing as moving pictures in 1886 as was being shown on movie screens across the U.S. in 1913.

Hey! How 'bout them flying machines!

Many folks had gramophones/phonographs/record players in 1913, while back in 1886, they were still an amazing oddity.

And, yes, the telephone had been around since 1876, but they remained a luxury throughout the 1880’s and the rest of the 19^th century.

What a cool room, eh? My bedroom in 1980/81.

I probably still have that Pretenders poster and

Molly Hatchet cut out stashed away. I also see a Rachel Sweet

album to the left. I was a rocker of all sorts!

Because my concentration in history generally lies south of 1900, I rarely give much thought to the more recent social changes. In 1986 I was already married and making my way through adulthood, and I look back on that year and those times very fondly. In fact, I have plenty of home movies showing “everyday life” of the period, and it’s still difficult for me to comprehend that it was as long ago and so different than the way we live today.

But it really was a different time in so many ways.  

Who’da thought?

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