Rick Minerd - Life Is A Jukebox

It must have been exciting back in 1922 to hear the buzz about the new medium in communications. People at that time were seeing the cutting edge of "high tech'  and probably were more excited to get there very own radio than people have been the past few decades about getting hooked up to the Internet.

So called "high tech" gadgets of today are introduced with a yawn. I-pods? No big deal. Camera phones? It's almost as if people are let down that the new gadgets don't perform more tricks than they do.

But how exciting it must have been to hear about this guy named Marconi and  what could be accomplished with some wire and screws. Audible transmissions from Lord knows where. And as radio stations like KDKA, WLW and here in Columbus, WMAN-later renamed WSEN and later WCOL began delivering news reports from around the world that year, along with baseball scores and eventually entertainment, it must have gotten people away from staring at fireplaces and gazing at the family radio in amazement.

Almost everyone I know has an I-pod. If you haven't explored that medium it amounts to a plastic, zippo lighter sized gadget that can store up to a gazillion songs. Some can even store that many movies, display the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, send text messages to the space station, open your garage door, and eavesdrop on conversations from a mile away. Okay so this might sound a little exaggerated. But the point is this, their appearance is as about as exciting as a silver Jetta Camry Sentra. That foreign car.

Old radios on the other hand were like old cars in terms of early American pop-art. They came in all sizes and designs and like all precious art forms were coveted by their owners. Today many people collect them.  And those who appreciate what radios represented, cherish them as much as the original owners probably did. Especially if they happen to be family heir-looms.

I wouldn't trade my 1930s Zenith floor model for your I-pod, your Blackberry, your lap-top and your silver Jetta Camry Sentra put together. It's more than just a radio, it's a family heir-loom.

Many people fret about getting old. I'll admit it's not what it's cracked up to be, there are the worries of aches and pains, the fears of dying and for too many the hard choices that have to be made between eating and getting decent health care. But I would trade my spot here on the planet with someone who was old enough to appreciate the arrival of radio. Even if that someone has been long dead and out of here.

And this has nothing to do with radio itself.

I 've been a history buff for many years. Yes it would have been great to see the invention of radio, but if I were from that generation I would have also   witnessed  horses and buggies as common transportation. I could have hung out with Civil War veterans and listened to their tales. Been there to experience Henry Ford and his pal Thomas Edisons new ideas.

Watch new "high tech" gadgets like automatic traffic signals, electric street lights and refrigerators be introduced. See the invention of moving pictures, albeit without sound, steamy sex and  exaggerated violence.

Caught the Wright Brothers act and just lived in a time when people breathed cleaner air, stayed home more and really marveled at changing times instead of fearing them.

The planet has gone to hell. Global warming, greed, ridiculous tax laws, global terrorism, kids killing each other at school, civil liberty's being removed from our bill of rights, population over-crowding and a list too repugnant to finish.

Tom Brokaw identifies the World War ll generation as the greatest. No argument here. But I would lay money that the so-called Generation-X would argue that they are.

Every time I see film footage or read something about the 1940s I wish I had been there. It would have meant the suffrage that came with the great depression of the '30s, but having known so many people from that era, and missing them after they passed away, I think I got here  about 50 years too late.

Even if it meant sacrificing advanced medical technology, air-conditioning, safe-comfortable vehicles, microwave ovens and all of the other modern conveniences, I'd trade places with someone born in the early 20th century.

I've often wondered if those people could come back and see how far the world has progressed, if they'd welcome it or fear it. One thing I'm certain of is I'm glad I won't be mingling with anyone here 50 years from now. I will be long gone. And by then I suspect many senior citizens will look back and wish they were too. Try telling that to Generation X.  Because they will be thosesenior citizens. And like my own generation they won't know how amazing the past was until it is the past.   Rick

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