January 8, 2016 (Friday)
I don’t know why but lately I’ve had milk bottles on my mind. You know, the kind the milkman brought to your door before daylight each day. They held one quart of pasteurized, but not homogenized, milk. They no longer exist, as far as I know.
The list of stuff that no longer exists is long. A typical item was that big console radio. Its cabinet sat on the floor and was several feet high. It was made of real wood, beautifully crafted. It featured a huge speaker, at least a foot in diameter. Gone. If something can still be found, it likely will be made of different material. We recently replaced a porcelain light fixture at the house–you know the kind that is mounted on the ceiling or wall and has a place to install one light bulb. Its replacement was no longer made of porcelain. Now it’s plastic.
I know this is a two-sided issue, because we have many things today that we did not have in the past, like microwave ovens, air-conditioned homes and automobiles, T.V. that hangs lke a picture on the wall, cell phones, baby monitors, computers, word processors, 3D printers, phones that take pictures that can be instantly sent to other phones, etc. etc. We live in a magic world of inventions.
And so it goes. Some things are gone forever; other things have taken their place. An interesting phenomenon today is the rapid obsolescence of new stuff, like beta tapes and vhs tapes. My cell phone is a laugh for many, even though a decade ago it would have been a very expensive new wonder. Our world is changing fast.
