If I could introduce my grandchildren to the high-tech items of my day...

I remember my first typewriter. It was a manual Smith-Corona typewriter I found in the SEARS and ROEBUCK shopping catalog. My father was career Navy and my mother was career Civil Service. They gave me and my brother the things we wanted. They never wanted their children to want for anything. Thankfully, via all their hard work and sacrifices we got what we wanted.

I remember my first typewriter with the dual color ribbon. You could actually flip between whether you wanted black typewriter type or red. Well, I learned to type pretty good on it as well. I think I was up to about 55 wpm when I got my first electric typewriter. My speed increased about 10 wpm just with the change in typewriters.

Now today, I'm impressed with how fast my speed is when I typewrite online. Sometimes when I have idle time I go to the website www.typingtest.com and test my typing speed. At times I'm able to top 100 wpm and for that I'm grateful. It helps me to relax.

Watching my grandchildren get older makes me realize how much of my world they never will be privy to. They have gadgets now where they can color on the gadget attached to the computer via a USB port and it shows up on the computer screen. I think it is really cool and amazing. I have two granddaughters who like to draw. The youngest is the gadget artist. My eldest grandchild uses one of the first computer paint tools, MSPAINT to create her works of art. Now both of their dads have different artistic talent styles I figure that's where they get their love from the arts from. They are really good at it. The most technology I had for art as a child was the screen with a red border we had a etch pencil attached to we used to draw with. We use to shake the screen to clear it.

They have all types of museums for different stuff, I think it would be nice if someone opened up a gadget museum to display all the tech gadgets from my grade school years so I can walk my grands back in time. They could include telephones, typewriters, sewing machines, the picture viewers we used to hold up to our eyes, the first video games, a small replica of the old-time gas pumps, appliances without automatic shut off, the old music players, refrigerators without ice-makers, the wind up toys with no battery compartments, the first AM/FM radio without manual dials, and my all-time favorite for my grandchildren to see would be a television without a remote control.

Would my grands appreciate a such a tour through a museum to look at old gadgets. I think not they are happy with what they have but it would be even more fun if they had to vacation for a week in a home with everything old school. I think it would definitely heighten their appreciation for all the modern stuff.