Everchanging World

Today, Nash County will send another flock of graduates out into the world. It there is one thing that we all have to understand is nothing is ever the same. Those who adjust as the world unfolds think everything is just like it always was. When we look back, the world is nothing like my graduation day.

The TV had three network. CBS, NBC and ABC. Hard to believe ESPN is still almost 10 years away.

I use to spin records as a disc jockey. Today when you go into a radio station, no one has a turntable.

If I needed to call home, I'd go to a phone booth and put a dime in the phone and called my dad. Can you find a phone booth today? If you did, there was a book to look up any number, today you'd only see torn out pages.

If you wanted to get updated news, the newspaper came early in the morning or here in Rocky Mount, the Evening Telegram landed in the early afternoon. There was no local 5 a.m. newscast, no CNN keeping us up to the minute in the world.

You could go to a service station and someone there filled you up and checked the oil and you never got out of the car. And we call this world we live in progress?

You use to park right in front of the business on Main Street that we wanted to go to. Today, we walk a mile in the parking lot just to walk another mile once inside the mall.

I could walk in a store, find what I wanted and be out in a jiffy. Today after walking that mile to find it and now stand in line a half hour to pay for it. Progress!

There was a time when going on a Sunday afternoon to park on Main Street and watch the cars go by or sit on your porch and enjoy life. Today it's too hot to be outside, so let's get into the air conditioning.

Today we have HD TV. The very first TV that I ever saw in color was President John F. Kennedy's funeral.

I wanted to be a millionaire. Today, if you only have 10 billion, you are considered working class.

Those that graduate today will one day ride on roads that will have electronic sensors that guide your car without a steering wheel.

Those that graduate today will one day be able to send by your TV screen into someone else home to see you as they talk to you. Sorry, we can already do that. Progress I can't keep up with it.

Graduates today, as you know, it will not be the same 30 years from now. My hope is that 30 years from now the official language of this country is not Chinese.