Friday, July 29, 2011

Why not watch dough rise?

Sometimes, I am completely overwhelmed by how our lives have changed so drastically. I hardly know where to begin.

The other day I overheard someone comment, “That was way back when we used to wait in line.” Used to wait in line? Did I miss something?

I suppose most people don’t have to wait in line these days, buying just about everything from flight tickets to dinner on the web. Not phone stores, of course, where ironically there always seems to be a line.

We don’t ask for the restroom key anymore or the time of day.

We don’t buy clothespins, ant buttons or rotary phones either. I suppose most young people don’t even know what these things are.

Baby toys are no longer stationary or static. Everything nowadays is electronic with movable parts, sounds, microchips and a variety of flashing lights.

Take for example the Fisher Price Rain Forest Swing. One button makes jungle noises, one plays songs, another turns hanging plants and animals into a merry-go-around and still another flashes lights choreographed to music.

And then there’s the Fish Under-the-Sea Gym Mat, comprised of soft colorful sea creatures, dangling rattles with moveable parts, a giant squeezable blue whale and a loveable octopus. Push this button and the thing lights up. Push that one and it plays Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, push another and it becomes a rotating mobile.

Speaking of kids’ toys, do parents today go to the grocery store to pick up several large cardboard boxes for their toddlers to play in?

With constant distractions of i-phones, i-pads and i-pods at our fingertips every waking hour, I don’t think we sit and listen attentively anymore.

Tags on shirt disappeared right along with sitting around the dinner table for meals. Nowadays, tags are stamped inside or outside shirts. People either eat out, in front of the TV or on the run, downing dinners in their cars.

When was the last time you sharpened a pencil, had new soles put on your leather shoes, hemmed skirts or trousers or brought your 20-year-old Craftsman drill into the shop for repair?

We don’t darn socks, sew on buttons or fix three-corner tears.

Remember when we patched holes in our jeans? Now, we buy brand new jeans with readymade tears and wear them as some type of fashion statement.

Why watch dough rise, knead bread or bake cakes, when we can just run to the store and buy whatever we want.

Doctors don’t make house calls and milk is no longer delivered to our doors in glass jugs or any other container, for that matter.

Where have all the circus tents gone? Whatever happened to drive-in theaters? Are there any filling stations left?

Where has time gone?

2011 © Copyright Paula Damon. A resident of Southeast South Dakota, Paula Bosco Damon is a national award-winning columnist. Her writing has won first-place in competitions of the National Federation of Press Women, South Dakota Press Women and Iowa Press Women. In the 2009, 2010 and 2011 South Dakota Press Women Communications Contests, her columns have earned eight first-place awards. To contact Paula, email boscodamonpaula@gmail, follow her blog at my-story-your-story.blogspot.com and find her on FaceBook.

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