Back to the '80s

"Mommy, what is this word and what does it mean?"  Emily pointed in her book and asked this of me tonight as she was doing her nightly reading.

Amplifier.  That was the word.

"It's like a speaker.  It is a speaker."

"Huh?"

"You know the stereo that we have in the basement.  It's like those speakers that are attached to the stereo."

"What's a stereo?"

How does she not know what a stereo is?  I'm not getting anywhere with this.

"An amplifier makes the sound loud so everyone can hear it.  The band in the book would hook their guitar to it and then everyone could hear the guitar."

She looked skeptical.

What's a stereo?  I keep forgetting that we live in a land of iPods.  It saddens me to think that stereos are dead.  And then I think back to when I was her age and all that we lived without.

Computers?  What are those?

We didn't have a microwave or cable television.  In fact, I think that one of our two televisions was still black and white when I was eight years old.  Our phones were connected to the walls and had rotary dials.  There were no video games, texting, Facebook, twitter or digital anything.  We've become a society of instant gratification.  Text me, call my cell, update FB, send me that pic.  Now, now, now.  Was life easier back then or is it easier now?



I love accidental '80s hair.  (That was taken at the tail end of the stomach virus from hell.)