My Grandmother Holden was born in 1886 and died in 1972. Let me just list a few of the changes that came during her lifetime:
- 1900 – Kodak introduced the Brownie camera. The US had 10 miles of paved roads and 8000 cars.
- 1903 – First flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.
- 1907 – First electric washing machine.
- 1908 – The first Model-T by Ford.
- 1909 – Plastic was invented.
- 1913 – Henry Ford created the assembly line.
- 1923 – Talking movies invented.
- 1928 – Television was invented.
- 1929 – Car radio was invented.
- 1930 – Bringing electricity to rural America occurred from the 1930s to the 1950s!
- 1932 – Air conditioning invented and scientists split the atom for the first time.
- 1939 – First commercial flight over the Atlantic. The helicopter was invented.
- 1942 – Although Penicillin was discovered in 1928, it did not become viable as a treatment until 1942.
- 1945 – The first computer was built. The microwave oven was invented.
- 1953 – DNA discovered.
- 1960 – Lasers invented.
- 1961 – First man in space.
- 1967 – First heart transplant.
- 1969 – Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon.
- 1972 – Pocket calculators were introduced, and the first ones cost over $100.
Listening to older people, you hear stories of the past. None of us are that far removed from a very different time. They recall a time when people had furnaces that had to be stoked by hand, out-houses, horses and early motor cars with bad roads to name but a few items. An older generation lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They experienced rationing and a time before many modern conveniences we simply take for granted.
My kids had a hard time imagining such a time when listening to older relatives, and the truth was so did I. I like thermostats, in-door plumbing, and autos that start with a key or a button and have a heater and air conditioning. When we count our blessings, the difficulty may be to notice them. We take a great deal for granted. It is only as we begin to imagine a different time or place where those conveniences don’t exist, that we can begin to see the magnitude of what we have.
Having received much, let us be wise enough to give glory to God accepting our blessings with prayer and thanksgiving.
while today 