Proms

Last week, we had dinner at my grandma's house in celebration of Chinese New Year. One of my aunts was talking about the proms nowadays (since her daughter will soon be attending one) and reminiscing about the time that she had hers. It made think of the proms I attended. In my time, dates were assigned. Not much choices in clothes, makeup and blackhead removal care of mom. Pretty boring when compared to the proms nowadays, actually. Now there are more choices for gowns and dresses. Girls get made up by professionals. And get actual dates and not people assigned to them. And moms as excited as their daughters. (And maybe dads more nervous about their princesses? :P)

My other aunt said that while girls now only had to worry about getting a date and how they would look, her worry that time was actually going to the prom, since she had strict traditional Chinese parents and was an only girl. During her prom, her date was her brother. Hmmm, I guess that makes my prom just a little bit better, but not much.

Amazing Technology

I am truly amazed at today's gadgets! Back in the early nineties, cellular phones were HUGE and expensive. Even the plans that were available were expensive. They won't fit into a handbag. My dad used one of those phones because he was a businessman and he was always on the go. Now, they are so small and so inexpensive, almost everyone I know has one. I actually use 2 -- one for my patients and family, another for my online business.

Same goes for games. We had our Game and Watch by Nintendo back when we were small, but these feature only one game per unit. Of course, at that time, people think you're cool if you brought along one of those (but teachers at my school used to confiscate them). Now there's PSP, XBox, and Nintendo Wii. Me? I don't have any of those. I don't even have time to update this blog or to read the books I bought last Christmas! LOL. I just content myself with the games on facebook.

Even TVs have undergone huge changes. When I was small, TVs were black and white, had a cover that could be locked and looked like this huge cabinet. Later on, colored TVs became "in". Now, you have LCD TVs and plasma TVs. I wonder what they will think of next.

I feel old. :P

"Hi-Tech" Games

Technology has come a long, long way in my lifetime. Let's take games. I remember that my uncle used to have the Atari, which was considered a state of the art game back in the seventies. We didn't have any of those since it was apparently expensive and difficult to acquire, so we were very happy when my uncle got tired of it and decided to give it to us. If you look at it now, it's so simple. The Tennis game does not look like a tennis game at all. A small square is the "ball" and rectangles are the "rackets". I guess kids nowadays would laugh at it!

Later, my father would buy us "game and watch" by nintendo. It was the in game in the late seventies to early eighties. It was his usual pasalubong (gift) whenever he went to Hong Kong. It was much better than the Atari. It's still a far cry from today's Wii and wii accessories, but during those days, they were considered hi tech!

Lest we forget, there were the arcade games like Pacman and Mario Brothers, available in game arcades in places like Virra Mall. They are also available for computers -- in those days computer monitors were all in green. Then there's the Nintendo Family Computer, then the Game Boy, then Sony Playstation, PSP, then the XBox, then the Nintendo Wii.

Electronic games have come a long, long way, indeed.

My Grandparents' Cars

I remember that my grandparents had quite an odd assortment of vehicles throughout the years. They had a 60's model car when I was small. I don't know the make but I remember details like the gear shift being just behind the steering wheel, and the front seat being one whole seat, like a sofa which could seat three.

Later on, they had a utility vehicle. The make escapes me at the moment but if I recall it right, it's a locally assembled vehicle. If I remember correctly, it didn't have any aircon.

Then came the Lancer. My grandfather actually won it in some raffle. I don't know if he would have gone out and bought a new vehicle if he hadn't won in that raffle.

When Toyota came back to the Philippines, my grandparents bought a Toyota Corolla, the XL type (entry level).

I guess my grandparents are okay with any vehicle, as long as it works and takes them where they want to go. Pretty simple tastes. No fancy lambo doors or any modifications whatsoever that would cost additional.

I guess I am too. I would go for a vehicle that would serve my needs and would not cost too much and call too much attention. No fancy vehicles for me. Just a plain, reliable car would do.

Sea Travel -- In Peace and In Conflict

My uncles and aunts recently brought my grandmother to a cruise. It's not one of those Caribbean cruises that are so popular nowadays but an Alaskan cruise. I didn't think that my grandmother would enjoy it, but she in fact, did! She got to visit places she would have never thought of going, saw animals that she saw for the first time in her 80 plus years, and basked in the glow of attention from her children.

I realized that when she was younger, ships and boats were strictly for transportation and not really for leisure. My grandfather came over to the Philippines on a boat when he was a teenager to look for earning opportunities in the s0 called "land of opportunity". My grandmother and my father almost missed the boat going out of China to migrate to Hong Kong, where they would later meet up with my grandfather. According to various accounts, migration out of mainland China was nearly impossible during those turbulent years.

We should be more thankful for these (relatively) peaceful times. Though, of course, danger lurks within. There are still conflicts around the world, and for as long as there are people greedy for power and money, there will never be true peace and harmony.

Waxing Nostalgic...

When I was a little girl, I used to tag along with my grandfather to his office. His (now defunct) company used to process steel for industrial use. His office is just a quaint 2 story structure which looks like a house-inside-a-warehouse. I used to be fascinated with their adding machines, which do not have LCD or even light screens but just have a roll of paper tape wherein whatever you add is printed and the result comes out when you pull on the lever. Everything else was strictly by hand -- record keeping, inventory, accounting, you name it, somebody does it by hand and keeps a copy of it somewhere in the office. Computers were unheard of. Telephones were the dial type. Oh, yeah, everywhere you can hear the tap-tap-tap of manual typewriters.

Nowadays, most offices are located in commercial centers, in high or mid rise buildings. You can hardly find an office who does not have even a single computer. You'd panic you don't have enough laptop memory to store all the data that you need. Telephones were push button types and everybody sports his or her own cellular phone.

Times have certainly changed...