On February 2, 1917, in Haw River, NC, a town that would later become the world’s largest producer of Corduroy, my husband’s grandmother was born. Yesterday, as we sat in the small living room where my father-in-law was once raised, my husband loudly asked a seemingly normal question which provoked a rather surprising answer. “What is the greatest change you have seen in your life?”
Her answer was sensible. Real. But far from where my mind had wondered.
While I view the world’s progress in measures of technology, I missed the very essences of what all technology, new and obsolete, have in common.
Electricity.
For ten years, Grandmother lived in a house with no electricity. Ten years. Ten. Years.
My mind is so conditioned by my surroundings that the idea of ten days without electricity is unfathomable, let alone ten years. Last winter, when central North Carolina was crippled by an ice storm that left many without power for days, our way of living was temporarily deemed disastrous. Within hours of losing my source of heat, the Diva Princess and I abandoned my sister’s house (where we were living at the time) in search of power.
Hours. Not days. Not years. Only hours.
Obviously, I am well aware that electricity has not always been readily available. That once upon a time the world functioned on a far more basic level. But somehow, on that Sunday afternoon, sharing a conversation with a woman who once lived in a world where lights were not merely at our fingertips blew my mind. I’ve become so accustomed to the modern conveniences, the lights, the heat, the world at my fingertips, that I can’t imagine a world otherwise.
I don’t know what’s in store for my lifetime, but it’s hard to imagine I will ever experience something that changes our lives so dramatically. I only hope that the continued “success” in society is not it’s own downfall.
my beautiful mother in law. Love her so much