A retrospective

As I approach the half century mark (I have a bunch of months to go, but why wait?) I thought it proper to look back on all that has changed during my lifetime. The world is a very different place from what it was in 1969 and I think that we should be able to catalog those differences and assess the miraculous shifts that observable in the world around us. So I will now make a list of the changes which I have seen during only my lifetime (which will therefore not include the introduction of televisions and microwave ovens, but, if things develop the way they should within the next few months, include television/microwave ovens):

Back in 1969, it seemed that everyone I knew was taller than I was. Now, 50 years later, the population's general height has normalized and now everyone is around my height. Science!

In 1969, to get around, you had to crawl! Since then, there have been incredible advances and now, I find that to get places, I can use all sorts of different methods, and that people don't even really crawl all that much anymore. Incredible changes!

Over the last 50 years, food has gotten progressively more interesting. Way back when, it seemed that there were only drinks, and even those were pretty generic -- white and milky, but not really interesting. Clearly, mankind has worked hard to create new gustatory options -- good going, mankind!

I remember when I was a baby -- no one had 4 computers. Now, some people have 4 computers. Crazy, right?

This one is for all you coin collectors out there: in 1969, we could not imagine that there would be coins that said "2008" on them, but these days, I see so many coins with that number on them. Collections now are considered incomplete if they don't have one of those!

In 1969, the Mets were the champions of baseball. Now, in 2019, this is no longer the case. I should have seen this coming, I guess.

Diapers seemed to be de rigueur when I was a child but now, the only people who wear them seem babyish in their fashion choices.

We have taken incredible strides in the last 50 years and we should appreciate all of these advancements. I can't even begin to imagine what the world will be like in another 50 years. I wonder if diapers will make a comeback!