I Can't Believe I Got So Old So Quick -by Jim Norris
Just a short time ago, my family sat by the radio, listening to stories. The radio was taller than me. The grownups listened to the news and different stories than we kids did, but listening was a family thing.
I sang on the radio. I don’t mean I went down to the station and performed. I physically climbed up on the radio. My brother talked me in to it. He helped me get on it.
When mom caught me, I didn’t want to set down for a while.
We did have a telephone. When you got a call, all the neighbors listened in, Of course, you could listen to them too, if you wanted.
One of the neighbors got what I thought was a fancy new radio. They invited us to come see it. We crossed the river and went up the hill to take a look. It was a box with a little round widow, and you could see people talking. They were a little hard to make out because the window was about the size of a saucer. And the reception was bad. The neighbor said, “It must be snowing between us and those people.” Of course, it was a television.
I remember when we got a tractor. The mules didn’t have to work as hard.
Most young people don’t remember cars without turn signals. I have one, but it’s older than I am. My 1926 Chrysler has wooden spoke wheels!
How many young folks today know how to drive a stick shift? We had to! The first car with automatic transmission was the 1948 Oldsmobile.
In junior high, I took typing class. I was very fast—forty-five words a minute (if you didn’t count the mistakes). Arthritis has made a difference since then!
Married and raising a family with three children, I worked different jobs. By my count, I’ve had ten jobs—more, if you count the part-time jobs.
I have seven grandchildren, but no great-grandchildren yet. I should have. The grandkids are old enough, but only two are married. Maybe they’re smarter than I was at that age.
I’d had brown hair all my life. Never thought much about it until that one time I went to renew my driver license. The lady at the desk refused to write brown on my license—I’d turned gray! Could raising kids have done that?
Maybe it was work that turned me gray. Eventually, this thing called a computer came along, and we had to learn to send our run reports on it. Just when I was getting good, they updated the darn thing. After each update, I had to learn to use it again. An update should make something easier to use, shouldn’t it?
It seems like such a short time ago I started to work for the fire department. Now, I’ve been retired from there twenty-three years.
When I was younger, there were pay phones everywhere. Why would someone carry a bag phone? One of the guys at work had one. I thought for sure I’d never get one. My family thought I should join the modern age. I got a smart phone for Christmas. Three years later I’m still finding out things I didn’t know about it!
From old time radios to cell phones, changing in the blink of an eye.I can’t believe I got so old, so quick. I don’t feel that old.
Eighty six is just a number isn’t it?
Early in his career Jim worked for the Climax Mine outside of Leadville, then on the Roberts Tunnel project followed by a stint as a bus driver for the city of Denver where he joined the Westminster volunteer fire department. He ultimately took a job with the Fort Collins Fire department from which he retired 33 years later.
