Month: November 2019

Preferably with a bad fake Spanish accent. It is a title I have been working on for about 70 years and now that it has been awarded it should be used. While there are many that earned this title in the past there are also many that never achieved this title. So it seems that the title carries more weight (both literally and figurative) than say the title of The Tricenarian. When you turn 30 its no big deal I guess because the ratio of those that make it vs. those that don’t is pretty high. Of the original 100 there are as of today only 77.7 have made it this far. And I’m sure I saw that .7 guy at the grocery today. By the time the rank of Octogenarian is achieved only 57.3  will make it to that level. Something about this decade of ranking up eliminates almost as  many as all the previous decades combined. I may have stumbled upon something that science should look into.

One thing that as a septuagenarian that you have more of is an appreciation for the length of time. Of course we are all aware that time has been going on for quite a while now but it’s not until you have been through quite a lot of it that there is an understanding of how long time is  and how much can happen in a short amount of time let alone a long time. While working on scanning old pictures for the family history thing, right over there to the right on this very page, I got to thinking about my great grandfather Nixon, born 1833 died 1920. What changed in his 87 years was pretty significant. His family moved to New Mt. Pleasant in 1936 cut down some trees and built a cabin. (of course it wasn’t New Mt. Pleasant when they moved there because they were one of the first to live there) During the first half of his life the steam shovel, the self cleaning plow, repeating rifle using casings, pasteurization, all of Edison’s stuff, were invented. Railroads went from nothing to a major way to move goods and people around and across the country. Photography went from nothing to somewhat common. During the last half there was the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, electrification, and many of the first plastics, solar cells and wind turbines were developed. He lived through two wars that in themselves created new and inventive ways to kill people. The point being as he got into his eighties he must have said something to the effect of “holy crap I’ve seen a lot”.

So now as I begin my 8th decade when I look back and remember that during the last 7 decades TV has gone from 13 inch black and white showing 3 channels, in the best of weather, to the current 4K wall size bazillion of channels. Not only did seat belts get invented but they invented air bags. We’ve gone form 4 engine prop planes for long distance travel to jets that can get you anywhere in the world within 15 to 18 hours. I bought my first computer in 1982 about 30 years after the cutting edge room sized computer was put into use. Now I carry more computing power in my pocket than was in existence when I was born. The highest anyone had flown in an airplane when I was born was about 60000 feet. 19 years later we were on the moon. We have had 2 spaceships leave the solar system. All kinds of stuff has been developed in medicine ranging from drugs to control various chronic diseases to artificial limbs and organs to Greyson’s implants. Holy crap I’ve seen a lot.

I did learn one thing thinking about this. The urinal was not invented/patented until 1866. To think that humankind lived without this until then in mind boggling. Although I suppose urinals were called trees before that.

Assuming that the climate thing or the interaction of some of the batshit crazy leaders in the world today don’t do us in it would seem that the rate of technological advancement is continuing to increase and one can only imagine whats next. I won’t take time here to do that imagining  but this time it might actually finally deliver the often promised flying cars. When I reach the next rank up I’ll make a point to review the big advances in the coming 10 years that by then will be the last 10 years.

So stay tuned (they used to say that in the old days when you had to get up and walk across the room to change the channel on the TV) as it won’t be long until you can call me Ol’ Octogenarian preferably with a bad fake hillbilly accent.