Good evening, Gulf Watchers, and all who may join us for the Friday Block Party.
Tonite, in light of the recent passing of iconic creator, Steve Jobs; I thought we might look back at how communication technology has affected what we do.
We certainly know how much computers, etc. have changed our daily lives; but how about the magic items of yesteryear?
How about the invention of the telephone? For the first time, you were able to talk to someone in another town or state
Let's go back and explore some more....
Of course, that eventually brought about "party lines" and much humor.
Let's move on....the telephone was followed fairly soon by the next big item to give us a "voice from a box"---the phonograph.
It got better after that early start---soon we had vinyl records on that player And the on and on to today's CD's
The next two communication devices that changed our lives were the radio; and television
(I'm leaving out movies for now)
Can you remember days in which you may have stayed home from school and listened to "As the World turns"? or perhaps the Arthur Godfrey Show? (later on TV, as shown)
Remember the nights you listened to Our Miss Brooks on radio with the family next to you?
Major events came to life on the radio--WWII--Ed Murrow, this is London
During the heyday of radio, the invention of Television was soon to become the transformational communication device of the 20th Century (Sorry, but even Jobs great work does not match up to what televison has done for the world.)
Much of the early TV was simply "radio with pictures"--Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, Bing Crosby. These big radio stars simply moved to the new medium with little change in what they actually did...
Slowly however, over the course of the post War years, the shows changed and television brought us much more entertainment--even Leonard Bernstein (sorry for the commercials)
By the Fifties; with satellites; we were able for the first time to see across the country--Live-with Ed Murrow (Damn, I'm old---remember seeing that the day it happened.)
Of course, the real impact of television was never more dramatic for us than when we saw the news of JFK's assassination and aftermath.
We've come a long way since then---or have we? Some of the stuff on TV today is
revolting.
There is so much more to the communication expansion that we have seen in the last hundred years or so----please offer up your thoughts; or fun times; or special devices that got you to come out from your shell....
What I find interesting is the early items brought us closer together; and now the new items are taking us further apart (think kids sitting 6 feet apart texting each other.....)
In honor of Steve Jobs---dessert for tonite is: Apple pie
