A few generation gap instances happened during Christmas. There were probably more, but I remember these few.

One of my young nieces received a pink digital camera as a gift. A small hand-held plastic thing where you take pictures then take the chip out and put it into a small printer and print the pictures, or you can just keep them on the camera and see them digitally. It’s funny how she felt that an actual camera was a new invention. I guess what’s old is new again, I’ve read where people are going back to malls and movie theaters, too.

I told her about the “old days” where we would have a limited amount of photos on the film cartridge, usually 12, 24 or 36 and that we would take the pictures and then have to have them developed, waiting a week to see the results.

In time, there were one hour photo processing places and I also explained before the cartridges, that rolls of film had to be inserted into the camera. I explained film, negatives and developing. It all drew a blank stare.

Later, we were talking about the new year and I was telling her about something that happened in the 1980s. That drew a blank stare, too. I guess she only knows the 21st century.

Then there was. MY DVR. Apparently DVR’s are ancient, according to my nephew. I know cable tv is, but so are the DVR’s. He was flabbergasted that I have DVRs connected to my tv. He was flabbergasted that I still have cable tv. So am I at times, I pay too much and watch too little.

I like to do cartoons based on the past, where people thought they were in the most modern of times, which they were, but to look back, it was almost primitive.

I often see old photos online, from the 1890s or 1912 or 1920s and I look at the people in the photo, who think they have it all. And they did for that time period. I’ve seen old photos of NYC in the 1860s, where people dogged big white trolleys and horses around the city. Strange by today’s standards.

Another instance involved a new pen I received as a gift. It’s a beautiful pen I received from another young relative. At first I thought it was a fountain pen for drawing, because she kept talking about the “ink refill.” It turns out, she meant the ballpoint pen ink cartridge that you just slip in when the ink runs out, which you can purchase anywhere. But she made it sound as if I needed to fill the ink from some sort of well.

I think she is so used to throw-away plastic pens, that it was something interesting and new to her that you can just buy an ink cartridge and slip it in the pen without throwing the pen itself out. I almost told her about quill pens, but I didn’t.

Speaking of living in the modern world, one of my nephews helped me set up SoFi, the investing site. I had the app on my phone but I never completed the sign-up process, so I did that, I completed the sign up process and now have a robot making all my stock decisions. He claims the robot makes him 9% on all the trades it chooses, so let’s see how it goes!

Years from now, what we do today will look ancient – the digital photos, the DVRs, tv and stock trading, but for now, I’m living in the moment.

Till next time . . .

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