Merida Mikey's First Blog!

Wow! Yesterday I couldn’t even spell Blogger, and today I are one!

Not being of the electronic gadget generation, I am always a little taken back by the dynamics of the industry. I stopped questioning how it all worked several years ago after some very nice, very patient people tried to explain it to me. I just nodded, smiled, replied with lots of “oh, o.k.’s”, and convinced most of them that they were getting through! I must now confess that this was a bit deceitful on my part!

In any event, the age of electronic gadgetry is here, it does work, and does provide a great opportunity for communication on a world wide basis, and best of all it’s basically free!

I grew up during a time when calculators weren’t even heard of. The word "blog" was not yet born. Because my mom and dad were in business, they had an adding machine. You didn’t plug it in and it wasn’t solar powered. It was punch in the numbers, select the function (add, subtract, etc.) and pull the handle! (Similar to a slot machine.) I think today it would probably be classified as an antique!

I learned to type on a manual typewriter in school in the early 1960’s. When IBM came out with its electric typewriter, the “IBM Selectra”, I thought I died and went to heaven. It even had various sized, interchangeable round heads that you could use to change script size and type. Wow, I thought. How inventive. Now, look how far we have advanced.

In 1965, while in the service, I went to work for IBM part time nights as a key punch proofer! I was selected for that job because I could type more than 25 words per minute. I recall the key punch machines and the proof machine that I worked on each were about the size of a two bedroom, one bath home. Plus a garage! These machines were huge and had thousands, perhaps millions, of wires that led to God only knows where. But, they did the job!

Today, we have hand held technology that just about blows my mind! It enables us to make/receive calls, watch television, listen to music, add, subtract, send/receive e-mails, etc., and so on. I honestly never imagined that I would see this in my life time, but I’m grateful that I have. (I don't necessarily understand it all, but none-the-less, I am grateful!)

I will later blog some of my experiences living and traveling in Mexico for 14 years now, and share some of that with you. Stay tuned for my next blog!

Merida Mikey