I am a bonafide boomer. yet my mind draws on nostalgic thinking of the good old days. Coming from the rural south, my experiences reflected more of the late forties lifestyle, kerosene lamps, space heaters. Any convenience was manufactured out of wood, tin, or iron. Stainless steel and chrome were the new darlings in industry and clockwork.
Entering my thirties, computers were invading the office, my typewriter replaced by a word processor. Then a large screen monitor and keyboard moved in with a CPU that computed and spit out simple DOS characters on an endless stack of printer paper. I remember marveling over how a series of the 1 and 0 could form words and compile data.
A year later I took on a new job and confidently stated that I was computer literate! On day one, I am placed in a cubicle with a machine that although it bared some resemblance to the then obsolete DOS, was vastly different. Luckily an intern, allowed me to ask her questions without ratting me out for my lack of knowledge. I lived in fear of that machine; all wires and chips, nothing I could put a wrench on to fix. How many times with heart-pounding did I silently inquire,”Where did my document go when it hid from the screen? Was it lost forever?”
Today I am retired due to disability and yet have continually learned and advanced my skills. I am tech-savvy and am embarking on building a social platform. A term I have just become aware of, as I attempt to publish, promote, and launch my book. New is scary, yet for me, a willingness to jump into a new endeavor, skilled or not, has brought me up with the Gen Xers. A plus was being raised with a dictionary and so I not only can manipulate technology but write with accurate spelling and form complete sentences. No offense Millenials.
A final thought from Harry Brearley, when his invention of stainless steel was defiantly ignored as a, “Highly coloured incident. The people saw nothing of commercial value and still less of scientific interest in it. The rusting of iron is universally accepted and no one seems willing to accept that it can be overcome. I hope I will not be taken amiss if I say that workmen are often much wiser than their masters” – Brearley, 1941
