Three aspects of modern life that would have amazed my 8-year-old self

This isn't me in the late 70s, but given the tube socks and the somewhat confused expression, it could have been.
 

I was born in 1969, making me a relatively early Gen Xer. The world in which I grew up in the 1970s and 80s was a very analog one. Everything was bigger and clunkier. It was just a different time.

If you took 1978 Scott and transported him into the world of 2025, here are three things he would immediately notice:

(1) Cars are quieter and less smelly

When I was little, cars ran on regular leaded gasoline. That gas produced a certain kind of exhaust, the smell of which was different from the smell most cars emit today. It was heavier, more industrial, and more (I guess) "gas-like." Cars were also generally louder, even the ones with good mufflers. You could hear a car coming from a greater distance than you can today. Right away, 8-year-old Scott would be impressed by your low-noise, low-exhaust cars of the future.

(2) There aren't as many cords and wires everywhere

The first place I ever remember seeing a wireless television remote was, I believe, my Uncle Still and Aunt Jean's house in North Carolina. We visited there in 1976, and they had this space-age clicker that changed the channel with no physical connection to the TV. I couldn't understand how it worked, though I'm sure it was primitive compared with the remotes of today. We didn't have a remote of any kind in our house at the time, and even the ones we got when cable TV came along four years later had these long, gray cords that cluttered up living rooms and basements across America. The wireless revolution has made us forget how most things needed cords to operate back then.

(3) Smoking? Not nearly the thing it once was

I've written about this before. Many (even most) adults you knew were smokers back when I was a kid. Both of my parents smoked. So did Terry's parents. Heck, we made our moms and dads ashtrays in art class as presents. People smoked in most public places, including malls and grocery stores. You just kind of got used to the smell, though I certainly never liked it...and to this day I've never even tried it. 1978 Scott would wonder where all the clouds of cigarette smoke and  the cig vending machines had gone in 2025. And as someone who was anti-smoking from a very early age, he would love it.

My dad would have loved (and maybe occasionally hated) 2023

This was our living room tech set-up in the 80s, featuring a big old Curtis Mathis VCR and a cable box resting on top of a wood cabinet RCA TV. Displayed on the screen is the 24-hour weather data feed Continental Cablevision used to broadcast. It was a hot, hot day in Wickliffe by the looks of it.

My father was a gadget guy.

He embraced technology, particularly in his later years. Thus, we were fairly early adopters of everything from VCRs to home computers.

Dad hoped to live well into the 21st century, if only to be there for The Next Big Tech Development, whatever that turned out to be. Unfortunately, he died in October 1999, just a little shy of the digital revolution that has irrevocably changed all of our lives.

He would have given almost anything to have witnessed it, I'm sure.

On the other hand, being politically somewhere just to the right of Archie Bunker, I don't know that he would have been thrilled with everything that has happened in the world socially over the last quarter century. And I don't say that judgmentally – positive or negative – but simply as an observation with which anyone who knew him would very likely agree.

As I've mentioned before, we were among the first people in our town to get cable TV in 1980. As I recall, Dad walked a couple of streets over to talk with the Continental Cablevision work crew and find out when they would make it to Harding Drive and what day was the absolute earliest he could sign up.

He bought us a VCR around that same time, and I'm not talking about one of the lightweight, sleek units that would be in vogue a decade later. I mean a big, heavy-duty Curtis Mathis job that could be used equally to watch a movie, record an episode of "M*A*S*H*," or throw at a would-be intruder as a show of deadly force.

We had a home video game system as far back as 1977, when he sprang for a black-and-white Radio Shack Pong console. We also got an Atari 2600 before almost any of my friends. Same with the Commodore 64 and my green-screen IBM XT computer.

The man loved new hardware, and I benefitted from it all as an equally tech-crazy teenage boy.

The first time I used a cell phone was when Terry was pregnant with Elissa in 1994 and I had to be reachable at a moment's notice in case she went into labor. I received the phone on a day I was covering a wrestling match a half-hour's drive away for my then-employer, The News-Herald (which as I recall lent me the phone).

I got into my car, and the first person I called was my dad.

He and I were amazed that we could carry on a conversation while one of us was driving and no CB radio was involved.

Now cell phones are everywhere, and it's sometimes difficult to tell how much of a good thing that really is.

Regardless, if my dad was still around, he would probably own both an iPhone AND an Android.

You know, just in case.

All these years later, I still miss the guy.

These are the conversations we had before GPS was a thing

ME: "OK, so you're going to want to take 271 South to Chagrin Boulevard."

FRIEND: "I don't want to go north?"

ME: "If you went north, you would drive directly into Lake Erie."

FRIEND: "OK, OK, got it. South. Is that the ramp near Burger King? Or the one down by the car dealership?"

ME: "It's the one that says '271 South.' There will be a sign."

FRIEND: Are you sure?

ME: "Positive. The Ohio Department of Transportation is not trying to confuse you. Anyway, take 271 to Chagrin Boulevard."

FRIEND: "How many exits away is Chagrin Boulevard?"

ME: "How many exits? I don't know, I don't count them."

FRIEND: "I need to know how many exits it is so I don't miss it."

ME: "Just look for the signs that say 'Chagrin Boulevard.'"

FRIEND: "I don't want to miss it."

ME: "Trust me, you won't miss it if you look for the series of big green signs that say 'Chagrin Boulevard.'"

FRIEND (doubtfully): "I don't know..."

ME: "You have my word. You can do this. Once you get off at Chagrin Boulevard, go east."

FRIEND: "Wait, east? Is that left or right?"

ME: "Well, considering you were just going south, I'm going to say that east will be a left turn."

FRIEND (jotting this down on a scrap of lined notebook paper): "Got it. OK, then what?"

ME: "You'll go a mile down Chagrin, maybe two. You'll get to a roundabout."

FRIEND: "I don't know what that is."

ME: "It's a big circle. Just stay to the right, and where there's a sign saying 'Lander Road North,' go that way. The street is called Bryce Road. It will be on your left."

FRIEND: "How far down Lander?"

ME: "I don't know, maybe half a mile? If you get to the big willow tree in front of the horse farm, you've gone  too far. And don't be fooled by Bryn Road, which is before Bryce. You don't want that one. You want Bryce Road."

FRIEND: "How do you spell that?"

ME: "B-R-Y-C-E. The address is 4725. I think it's on the left side of the street, but I'm not sure. All I know is you'll pass a school with a playground and a big statue of a dog."

FRIEND: "Why a dog?"

ME: "I don't know. That's not important. The main thing to remember here is 4725 Bryce Road. Got that?"

FRIEND: "Yeah, I think so. I wish someone would invent a technology that would just tell us how to get anywhere we're going without having to think about it."

ME: "It will never happen." 

The older I get, the more impressed by technology I am

I'm writing this post on an airplane. This may not mean much to you, but to me it's one of the coolest things in the history of forever.

In-flight WiFi has been around for a few years, and by now the techno illuminati are less than impressed with it (especially if it's slow and/or not working right). Then there's me. I'm sending real-time Facebook messages to friends who are several hundred miles away, and I'm doing it from seven miles in the air.

How can anyone do that and not at least think, "Huh, that's pretty cool."

My dad always loved technology, and I remember him saying that he wanted to live until the year 2000 just to see the latest gadgets and how they worked. Alas, he died in October 1999. I can't imagine how incredible smartphones and tablets would have seemed to him.

Terry and I are flying back from a trip to Los Angeles, and while there I used Uber for the first time. Are you hip to the whole Uber thing? You download an app to your phone, and when you're in a big city and want a cheap ride someplace, you just "hail" an Uber car through that app, and in minutes a driver comes and picks you up.

Chances are the fare for that trip will be half what you would pay for a traditional cab.

The first time I tried Uber in L.A., I was standing on Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. My phone knew my exact location, thanks to the miracle of GPS, and transmitted that information to the nearest Uber driver.

He got there in less than two minutes, and the cost of the ride from Hollywood to the Santa Monica beach was $15. Seriously, 15 bucks for what would have been well over $40 with tip in a cab. (There's no tipping in Uber.)

And by the way, I knew my driver was close because the minute I requested the ride, my phone showed me a little map of the surrounding streets and a little car icon pinpointing his exact location.

I just...I mean...isn't that amazing? I'm blown away by this. It was cheap, easy and fun. Which is exactly how life should be.

Like my dad, I can't wait to how technology advances in the remaining years of my life. It's just all so cool, and if I had the money I would buy every electronic gadget the minute it comes out.

Say what you will about technology destroying the soul of our society. I'll be too busy to hear you anyway because I'll be playing with my Apple Watch.