My grandmother was born in 1875, ten years after the U.S. Civil War ended. She died some time in the early 1970's. She had seen so many changes that we will never experience as most of our change comes in little electronic boxes. She told me that when she was a girl, she and her friends would peel soft creosote from telegraph poles! Fortunately Wrigley started selling gum in 1892 so her teeth never did fall out. The first cars, taking Greyhound buses all over the States, radios, televisions and so many things that were state of the art in her day but not are just labeled junk. And after years of saying how if God wanted her to fly He'd put wings on her, one day she decided that she wanted to try it out. So at a very old age, she boarded a 747 and few across the country and back. When I met her, and asked her what she thought of flying, she just looked at me, and said, "The coffee was not very hot!" End of conversation!
My father was born more than a hundred years ago and my mother was born in 1913. Sadly they did not live long enough to see the digital age or the end of the cold war, but they did see the moon landings and I can remember what a tremendous achievement it seemed to them both.
My father was born in 1903, and my mom, 2 years later. They also saw a lot of changes during their lives. My mom used to tell me stories of when she was little and they rode to school in a buckboard. She lived in Texas, and the longhorn cows would often chase the buckboard and try to turn it over. She said all of the terrified kids would be hiding on the floor of the buckboard, while the driver tried to fight off the wild longhorns with his bullwhip. Long years afterwards, my daughter and I were talking about it, and she said that her Grandmother ttold her the same stories. We are both very much afraid to this day ! !