It's foggy and cool on the California Delta this morning, we generally experience fog 3 days after a rain, so like clockwork, it came on its cat's paws yesterday morning. (Thanks to Carl Sandberg for his poem). My wife is dropping off our grandson at school, this is his last year, he graduates in June. As she was leaving the house she asked me if I had seen her telephone, a common occurrence in our house, we are always looking for something. So I dialed the number and waited to hear it ring, or it's tone or bell whatever alert she has on it. We could not hear it, maybe the batteries dead, or it may be in the car or something, I don't know. Chances are it will show up, (it was on the bathroom sink, now we are looking for her eyeglasses, that's the way it goes around here.) especially seeing as how she had it 15 minutes earlier in her hand, she left without it. She left her electronic umbilical cord at home, when we were young we had no inkling that cell phones would be so prominent in our lives. (We were raised in the 1950's and 1960's).
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| He had to have been wealthy to afford such a luxury when I was young, a car phone, really? |
I remember the first "Car Phone" I had ever seen, I lived in a town South of Minneapolis, Bloomington, in a new subdivision built right after the second world war. It was a typical neighborhood for that time period, nothing fancy, just houses built, and bought by the veterans of that war. So this man was driving a big steel car, that was also the heyday of the huge two-ton American dream machine, I don't recall what make of car it was. I had never seen this person before in my life when he stepped out of his car, he pulled a phone out and began talking. He had a suit on and one elbow resting on the roof of the vehicle, he was gesturing with one hand and holding the phone with the other. I was about 10 years old, a friend and I were watching with our mouths gaping, we half way thought he was joking around after all who had ever heard of such a thing? My mom was home when I went running into the house I had to tell someone, much like the first time I ever saw wall to wall carpeting. (But that's another blog). She told me to wait until my Dad came home and ask him because he understood that kind of stuff. Wait I did, of course, my siblings did not believe me, even when I brought my friend home to testify on my behalf, I was declared "nuts". Of course, my dad didn't have a clue how it worked, he was in the Navy during the war so his only idea was it must be a radio. I don't know how a "Car Phone" worked either, I still don't, but he was probably pretty close to being right, it must have been a "walkie-talkie" type of deal.
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| On my honor, I swear I saw a man in a car on the telephone! |
I had no idea what the future held in store, in that day and age a phone outside a "landline" was nowhere in our thoughts. We had no video games or any sort of electronics, transistor radios, black and white televisions along with a few neighbors that had "Ham" radios was our reality. We read a lot of comic books, played a lot of baseball and we were all in the Boy Scouts earning merit badges.
Our communications in those days were in the dark ages compared to where they are now if we missed a call, well that's what we did, we missed a call. There were no answering machines to check in those days, later they would come out after cassette tapes were invented. A far cry from our instant communications of today, in those days we followed a fire engine or a squad car to the action, now as you know, we can sit at home and get a text that someone's house is on fire, the fire department is on its way, and a full-length movie is sent to us on our cell phones. All while the fire is ongoing and way before the fire department shows up, the amazing thing is it could be happening anywhere in the world! (excuse my amazement, but I still have a hard time believing communications are so instantaneous.)
My family like many others, maybe most others, are scattered all over the country still communicating with them is no problem in this day and age, and I don't have to say a word, I text!
Once again I have driven the herd around the pasture a few times to get them into the barn, this blog's subject is pertaining to how communications have changed our lives, in my mind mostly for the better. I will make an exception but I think it can be addressed as "growing pains" when I read comments on the internet I sometimes think we as a society are a bit immature for such rapid communications. It seems like some people don't think before hitting the "send" button, a learning process, I've sent some really terrible emails and text, some inadvertently, some intentionally and some with errors that made them read as nastygrams. The 1990's and 2000's were especially susceptible to misunderstood messages that read like insults.
We see text and videos taken from the battlefields which are posted on social media within minutes of returning to the barracks, instant war reporting. When I was in Vietnam it took 30 days to receive a letter from home, another 30 days for the people on the other end to receive a reply, sixty days for a conversation to continue. Some of the conversations lasted for several months, talk about a slow boat to China, no wonder the nickname is "snail mail" for ground mail. We are all now amateur news reporters, on the spot minute by minute reporting accompanied by a color video in HD. All packaged by a computer program and sent within minutes of the event occurring, it truly is amazing.
It's pay off is the fact our modern communications save lives, all of the anguish, frustrations, and confusion that may be caused by instant communications is worth a fortune during catastrophic events. We have reverse 911 alerts, they don't always go smoothly, it's still part of the learning/maturing curve we are all in. However, the alerts have become so expected on our cell phones lawsuits are often instigated by people feeling the alert should have included them. I am talking now specifically about the Anderson Dam near failure in San Jose, not everyone was alerted, I am sure there are other examples. Being human as we all are, that my friends is how we learn, sometimes we have to learn not to walk on the ice, sometimes the lesson is hard.
I recently wrote a blog on earthquakes, (internal Link) I chose that subject because it seemed as if the West Coast has been experiencing an unusually increased amount of them. It sure seems like it to me as well as to a lot of people, after investigating this for several hours I realized what was really happening. The number of seismic instruments has been increased by an enormous number, science needs the information to enable them to predict earthquakes to hopefully save human lives, it makes perfect sense. The more active working detection instruments there are, the more earthquakes reported, the more it will seem more shakers are occurring.
Instant communications are in the same boat, everyone is on the internet, almost everyone has a cell phone loaded with all kinds of communication apps and programs. We get instant reports on even minor events such as a 1 magnitude shaker 600 miles away, valuable? Sure, it's part of the learning curve and we are learning fairly rapidly, but the immaturity still shows. Where it shows the most to me is some of the arguments that take place at the end of some postings. I will explain what I mean, if two millionaires are texting or tweeting each other, one in Silicon Valley and the other in say Mississippi. The Silicon Valley person has made his fortune in computer and internet technology, the person in Mississippi made his millions farming rice, sorghum and being a professional alligator hunter in the swamps. They will most likely end their conversation not understanding the other, and declaring the other as being off their rocker when that's not the case at all. It's a difference in culture, instant communications dissolve the borders that at one time separated us. There was a time when we had to go on a road trip to experience another culture, now all we have to do is send a 120-word tweet, a disaster in the making, there is no meeting of the minds at all prior to the first contact. No wonder we are having such a hard time getting along in these times. If you've ever watched the "Beverly Hillbillies" old TV program,
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| Not dumb, just different cultures is all. |
Communications in emergencies is where the most value in instant communications shines, we just have to plan for it, cell phone usage, charging needs and telephone numbers are all now included in our emergency preparedness plans. I constantly beat the drum of preparing, I'm not an advocate of extreme preparing, I encourage being set up to survive the first three days after an event starts. I strongly advise people to set up an emergency reporting contact out of the area, for all family members to call and keep in touch with during a catastrophic event. (Link to FEMA's family planning template) I advocate it because when an emergency occurs everyone will be on their cell phones, the local lines will be jammed solid, out of state lines will be clear. Clogging the airwaves, even more, is the fault of human nature, when we get a "busy tone", what do we do? Why we hang up and immediately dial the number again, it creates an atmosphere of everyone in the local area trying to get through to loved ones, jamming up the lines in the process. Texting may work, maybe, but none the less it will be prudent to address our communication needs during disasters well before they are needed.
Thanks for reading my blog, please share it, and let me know what you think in the comments, I may be all wet, hit the nail on the head, or just a word salad from your perspective, I'd like to hear it all.
jacquesandkate emergencykitsplus.com
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