Birthdays

We headed to Grandpa John's house tonight for a birthday celebration for him. Grandpa John, Jeff's grandpa, turned 91 today. Can you imagine all of the things that that man has seen in his life time?!?!? Wow! I feel old when I talk to people who graduated high school in 2003. (Yes, I am talking about you! You know who you are!) I am just a young whipper snapper compared to John.
His wife, Pauline, passed away last year at the young age of 100. Can you even wrap your brain around it? I sure can't! She was so feisty and always spoke her mind. People would say, "She's 100. She can say whatever she wants." But in all actuality, she just didn't give a damn about anything. If it hurt your feelings, it hurt your feelings, she was just saying it like it was. I was absolutely terrified the first time I was going to meet her.
I guess I don't really know where I am going with this entry. I just wanted to stop and think about all the things that I have seen so far in my lifetime, of almost 34 years. AAH! I can't believe I just told you all that! So far, I have seen cell phones go from this phone in a bag thing to a big ole honker that you had to pull an antenna out to a small sleek flip phone to a phone that you just touch the screen and you can get anything you want on it. Anything! Amazing! Or what about television?! Now granted, I lived out in the boonies, and I still do, but I only had three channels when I was little. Now, I have no idea how many channels I have and I don't hardly watch any of them. MTV actually played music videos and the TV went off of broadcasting at 1 am. We rarely locked our doors and now, as soon as I get home, they are locked behind me.
Maybe these things are all supposed to happen, but I can't even imagine what my kids will have witnessed when they are my age. Do you remember when we would watch the space shuttle take off on TV, now, does anyone ever even know when it is going into space? That was a huge event in my school....we always got to go to the cafeteria and watch it on TV. AWESOME!
I don't know, I just feel as if sometimes the things that we are watching happen are actually hurting us in the process of moving forward. It seems that the more technology we have, the more scared we are, the more alone we are, the more we miss out on.
These past few weeks I have had to kick my kids outside to play. Literally! They just want to hang out inside while they are on summer vacation. When it was summer for me, I don't ever remember being inside the house. Mom would get mad at Johnny and me for running in and out of the house all day long. We would sit on the front porch and watch storms roll in and we were always exploring something. But we were always outside!
I am just rambling and I don't know how the heck I got off subject of birthdays, but Grandpa John, I just want to wish you a very, very happy 91st birthday! (He has no idea about this because he has no computer.) But we love you anyway!