Same for my Great-Grandfather, but it was much more than that when I look at his life.
Went from horse and buggies and steam trains, lived through 2 world wars, saw rural electrification - 1930s for him - bring lights and washing machines and telephones, survived his own pandemic - Spanish Flu 1918-1919, saw the invention of automobiles, radios, and TVs, heavier than air flight, the Great Depression, the beginnings of the digital world, and watched the Moon Landings with me sitting in his favorite chair in our living room.
When he died, no one really knew how old he was - there was no official record of his birth certificate since he was born at home in a very rural area. While I’m old myself now and have seen some few changes, I cannot fathom the sheer number of societal upheavals and disruptions he went through every decade of his life.
Well, let’s see. Depending on your age, you were alive when JFK was assassinated. You watched the moon landing. You were alive during the Vietnam War. You remember 9/11, the Great Recession, and the spread of Facebook. You were alive when America elected its first Black president. You witnessed the explosion of technology, namely, smart phones. You’ve driven on roads alongside self-driving electric vehicles. You survived an international pandemic. You have access to the largest library of human knowledge to ever exist. If you’d like to, you can have a decent conversation with something pretending to be human.
I’d say you’ve lived through a decent chunk of history as well.
Everyone lives through history. But few live to see so many wrenching changes as his generation did. The best I can say I lived through was the beginning of the internet and the inter-connection of every person on the planet.
Same for my Great-Grandfather, but it was much more than that when I look at his life.
Went from horse and buggies and steam trains, lived through 2 world wars, saw rural electrification - 1930s for him - bring lights and washing machines and telephones, survived his own pandemic - Spanish Flu 1918-1919, saw the invention of automobiles, radios, and TVs, heavier than air flight, the Great Depression, the beginnings of the digital world, and watched the Moon Landings with me sitting in his favorite chair in our living room.
When he died, no one really knew how old he was - there was no official record of his birth certificate since he was born at home in a very rural area. While I’m old myself now and have seen some few changes, I cannot fathom the sheer number of societal upheavals and disruptions he went through every decade of his life.
Well, let’s see. Depending on your age, you were alive when JFK was assassinated. You watched the moon landing. You were alive during the Vietnam War. You remember 9/11, the Great Recession, and the spread of Facebook. You were alive when America elected its first Black president. You witnessed the explosion of technology, namely, smart phones. You’ve driven on roads alongside self-driving electric vehicles. You survived an international pandemic. You have access to the largest library of human knowledge to ever exist. If you’d like to, you can have a decent conversation with something pretending to be human.
I’d say you’ve lived through a decent chunk of history as well.
Everyone lives through history. But few live to see so many wrenching changes as his generation did. The best I can say I lived through was the beginning of the internet and the inter-connection of every person on the planet.