View Across Decades
Anne, your descriptive blog touched me in a very personal way.
My husband and I were children of the fifties; he grew up to go to Vietnam as a Special Forces Green Beret. We met in grad school at a time when computers were huge square boxes that fit entire rooms, and computer science meant learning a language based on X and O.
When we married, seven of our nine children were born at home, the first three in a one-room homestead cabin on an isolated Montana ranch. We raised cattle, and kept horses, chickens, pigs, and goats. Our food was grown in huge gardens under the hot dry Montana summer sky, and our babies wore cloth diapers. We did not have running water, let alone a TV. We were regarded as "hippies," though we definitely did not characterize ourselves that way. We considered our lifestyle as an alternative to what we perceived as the conventional 9-5 rat-race.
Living in one room on an isolated ranch, we read A LOT of books. Ironically, our oldest son graduated from Harvard Law School, and our oldest daughter is a grad student at U of Penn, having completed her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore. The only phone they knew as young children was a party line-- and information sharing was neighbors listening in on conversations.
As my husband entered the personal computer age in the 80s, I obstinately refused to participate-- after all, I owned a bookstore, and the information I found in books had always provided ample resources for my needs.
However, when he was in high school, my second-oldest son-- child #3-- "turned me on" to computers-- and oh my goodness, the information I found! I was fascinated by web-based linking.
Needless to say, we now have 4 dialup computers in our home-- a laptop for my husband, a laptop for son #4--child #5, a desktop for daughter #2-- child #6, and the computer I use for classes, business, etc. Son # 5--child #7 created an amazing 58-slide power point complete with sound and animation for an 8th grade language arts project last week.
I still do not watch TV-- though we have an incomprehensible # of channels available. I still love the printed word.
I like to think that ICTs have not compromised our family's capacity to communicate with one another-- ICT tools definitely make it easier to keep in touch with our older children-- even when they are in Baghdad! (Son #2). However, at this point in my life I am well aware of the laws of energy-- nothing new is created, and new forms necessarily supplant others. Hopefully, "being connected" still depends on the fact that we are human, not whether we have "access"...
Sorry to overpersonalize, but your post reminded my of my own route to the "teacher-librarian information-specialist" profession, and for that I thank you!
My husband and I were children of the fifties; he grew up to go to Vietnam as a Special Forces Green Beret. We met in grad school at a time when computers were huge square boxes that fit entire rooms, and computer science meant learning a language based on X and O.
When we married, seven of our nine children were born at home, the first three in a one-room homestead cabin on an isolated Montana ranch. We raised cattle, and kept horses, chickens, pigs, and goats. Our food was grown in huge gardens under the hot dry Montana summer sky, and our babies wore cloth diapers. We did not have running water, let alone a TV. We were regarded as "hippies," though we definitely did not characterize ourselves that way. We considered our lifestyle as an alternative to what we perceived as the conventional 9-5 rat-race.
Living in one room on an isolated ranch, we read A LOT of books. Ironically, our oldest son graduated from Harvard Law School, and our oldest daughter is a grad student at U of Penn, having completed her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore. The only phone they knew as young children was a party line-- and information sharing was neighbors listening in on conversations.
As my husband entered the personal computer age in the 80s, I obstinately refused to participate-- after all, I owned a bookstore, and the information I found in books had always provided ample resources for my needs.
However, when he was in high school, my second-oldest son-- child #3-- "turned me on" to computers-- and oh my goodness, the information I found! I was fascinated by web-based linking.
Needless to say, we now have 4 dialup computers in our home-- a laptop for my husband, a laptop for son #4--child #5, a desktop for daughter #2-- child #6, and the computer I use for classes, business, etc. Son # 5--child #7 created an amazing 58-slide power point complete with sound and animation for an 8th grade language arts project last week.
I still do not watch TV-- though we have an incomprehensible # of channels available. I still love the printed word.
I like to think that ICTs have not compromised our family's capacity to communicate with one another-- ICT tools definitely make it easier to keep in touch with our older children-- even when they are in Baghdad! (Son #2). However, at this point in my life I am well aware of the laws of energy-- nothing new is created, and new forms necessarily supplant others. Hopefully, "being connected" still depends on the fact that we are human, not whether we have "access"...
Sorry to overpersonalize, but your post reminded my of my own route to the "teacher-librarian information-specialist" profession, and for that I thank you!
posted by Kathryn Holt at 10:05 PM
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