The Christmas holiday brought many joys and sweet times with loved ones. So what an inopportune time for the wifi to go out.
Seven year old Owen got an unexpected glimpse of life without internet. And so we talked about my Grandpa Joe. Born in 1899, he was seven years old in 1906, 114 years ago. They barely had cars. Certainly no TV, radio, movies, or phones. Running water was a luxury. Residential electricity was in its infancy.
I’m not one to jump on the “terrible cell phones” bandwagon. We all use them. But a break can be a refreshing, enlightening time.
Those kids from a century ago were so far away from lap tops, iPads, cell phones, Alexa, and YouTube. It must have been like a different planet. So what did they do for entertainment?
Of course they had books. They had newspaper. Checkers. They told stories. They went to school, although few graduated high school, as they usually had to work. In the summer they went swimming in the river.
My grandpa told me they used to take a large metal hoop from a barrel, and roll it down the street with a stick.
Riveting.
But that’s what they had, and so that’s what they did. We do the same. Maybe they were less sophisticated. Maybe they were better off. Who knows? I don’t know if one era is better than the other. It’s just different. Kids in 2134 will likely think Fort Nite is archaic.
But there certainly is plenty of perspective to gain from thinking outside our box, looking at life from a different era, and in so doing, gaining a new point of view.
And when the wifi comes back on, I’m going to Google 1906.