After 25 Years Then What?

It’s been a few years since this anniversary passed in 2012, but we are still going strong.

Celebrating our Silver Wedding anniversary caused me and Mrs. C8j to go strolling down memory lane and we came to the (deep) conclusion that a lot has changed in 25 years in my life, but also in this world of ours:

• In 1987 the Internet was just starting, now it is our only way to shop (or one of our favorite places to shop).
• Banks closed at 3:00 PM Monday to Thursday and might stay open ’til 5:00 PM on Friday (and heaven forbid they opened on weekends). Phone banking? Say what? Interac? Huh? Pay for your groceries with a Credit Card? No way! If you were a good customer you could use a cheque card to write cheques to pay for your groceries. Luckily ATMs were available (and they had gone beyond the old “Johnny Cash” Canada Trust Machines).

• There wasn’t any Sunday shopping, and the idea was heresy to discuss (in fact a lot of shops had limited Saturday hours too). Remember the Lord’s Day act? In Ontario stores were fined (heavily) if they opened on Sundays or holidays. You ran out of milk on Sunday you went to Mac’s to get it!

• You really only had a few TV stations to watch, now there are about a thousand to choose from and none of them seem to have much on anyhow. High Definition? We were entering the VCR age, Digital and HD TV were just ideas rolling around in the NTSC’s head.
• Cell Phone? Yes, they were sort of out there, but they aren’t what they are today (about the size of a large brick, watch an episode of Miami Vice if you don’t believe me). There is an entire Industry that exploded in less than 25 years.
• Blogging? Back then you had Newsgroups that you might be able to read at work (if you worked in a High Tech firm, or at a University). Does anyone remember net.singles?
• On Line banking? No way! Heck you did your stock trades through a “Broker” back then, so no on line quick deals then. IPO’s? What were those? If you wanted to set up an RRSP, you had to go through one of the few Brokers out there. TFSA? Just a bunch of letters back then. You paid for that service, and you paid dearly!  Variable rate mortgages? Maybe, but they weren’t very common that is for sure. Carrying large amounts of money on your Credit Card? What? No one did that. Pay Day Loans? If you dealt with a loan shark maybe.

So much changed over 25 years, and so many more things will change, I just wonder my feelings about these upcoming changes will be? Will I be the “angry old man” or will I adopt it?