The time change happened a couple of weeks back, and as is
my custom, the next morning I went around my home & moved all the clocks
forward one hour. I mean, why have clocks showing the wrong time? Decoration?
Anyway, the process of re-setting my little world to the
norms of the outside world got me thinking about my mom, and more broadly, her
generation. Mom’s generation was definitely pre-computers, pre-digital,
pre-anything but pencil and paper. Moving the clocks meant turning some button
on the back that moved the minute hand forward 60 minutes. In contrast, I went
to each of my digital clocks, held down the ‘Time’ button, and then clicked the
‘Hour’ button once. There – Spring Forward was accomplished.
My mother’s generation has been called The Greatest
Generation, and I am not about to argue that moniker. Parents selflessly gave
of themselves – fathers went to war, mothers raised their kids, and they
complained very little about either. This was the American Dream of the 1950s.
My parents bought a nice home in a nice suburban area, dad went to work
dutifully each day, and mom got four kids ready and off to school each day. And
then, in the case of my mom, she would get dressed and drive to an office
somewhere and be a Bookkeeper.
Mom was a whiz with numbers. Oftentimes she would bring her
work home with her, and after feeding all of us, would spend her evenings
banging on an adding machine (the mechanical type, where you would punch the numbers,
then pull a little bar down where the total was then printed on a roll of
paper). Later, she relented and got a calculator - but with the roll of paper
for an audit trail.
When computers hit the scene in the 90's mom was at the very
end of her working career. She was approaching 70 years old, and when she
finally balanced her last ledger, she wrote in the numbers, and, literally,
closed the books. Her career was done.
But mine was really just getting going. And in my
generation, the tool of necessity is the personal computer. At this minute I
am typing this story in Word, and when it is done I will upload it to my blog.
A blog. Try explaining a blog to your parents.
Anyway, I remember trying to get my mom to embrace
computers. I showed her neat Youtube vids of babies making faces or whatever,
and she thought that was just grand. I then tried to use that bit of interest
to explain to her, ‘You know, mom, anything you would ever want to know can be
found right here.’ Want to take a trip somewhere? Don’t call the travel
agent...fire up Expedia. Want to find a good restaurant in Medina? Google it –
don’t flip open the yellow pages.
It was no use. My mom was institutionalized in the Old
School ways of doing things. “I spent fifty damn years in the business world
punching keys. I don’t have to punch anymore.” Okay mom. Just trying to help.
So what does this have to do with setting clocks after a
time change? Well, how many of you have parents, where to this day, if you go
to their homes, there’s a VCR (Forget DVD players) that has a flashing 12:00 displayed on it? And
how often do you sit there thinking, ‘I could fix that in about ten seconds,’
and then you do, but then you go back a week later and there’s the flashing 12
again?
Our parents were brilliant, and my parents in particular
sacrificed themselves for their children. For that I am eternally grateful.
But setting a digital clock or VCR? No clue.
So here’s to the Greatest Generation.
Or, if you prefer, the Flashing 12 generation.
