The Self Isolated Birthday

Today is my birthday and I turned 72.  How did I ever get to be so old?  It seems like only yesterday when I was a young mother running after my twin sons and hanging diapers on the line (yes, I used cloth diapers!).  Today was a very quiet day because of all the corona virus craziness.   We are all told to stay home and not go anywhere, and everything is closed anyway!  In all my life I've never experienced anything like this.  In many ways, this is worse than during the war years because back then stores were open and people weren't told to stay home.
     So I'm having a nice quiet day at home with plenty of time to think about all that I have lived through in my 72 years!   And how things have changed from 1948!  I was thinking about the 1950's and how I remember my first transistor radio and how I loved that thing and listened to the top 10 tunes all day long.   I remembered playing "travel bingo" in the back seat of our car with my sister while we were on a family vacation.  And back then cars were so lovely with bright colors and white wall tires and tail fins and curb feelers!  I remember the 1960's and my college years during the Hippie days.   I remember when computers took up half a room and spit out cards with little holes that we were told not to "bend, fold, spindle, or mutilate"!  And computer print outs came on green and white lined  huge sheets of paper connected with perforations.   And every kid from back then could remember getting our homework or test papers printed on mimeograph papers that smelled weird, but all of us kids loved the smell.
     Oh, how times have changed!  Computers have changed the world, cars all look the same now, and the world has gotten smaller and crazier.   No longer does a kid have to "go to the library" for a school project and thumb through the card catalog file to find just the right reference book.    Even toys and games have changed - our old toys from back when never had batteries and never had all the bells and whistles of today's video games.   And just think of how telephones have changed!  From rotary phones with dials and a party line to cordless hand held tiny things we carry around all day long in a pocket!
     I could go on and on about all the changes I have seen in my 72 years.   But I am grateful for the years I have lived and I am still very blessed.   Many people never get the chance to live as long as I have.   So in spite of being isolated at home during this corona virus thing, it is a GOOD day!

My 72 year photo.  I am working a crossword puzzle, my favorite thing to do.  You might say I'm a crossword puzzle addict (or maybe aficionado or fanatic would be better terms?).  I work several puzzles a day to keep my old brain sharp!