DelBloggolo: MR. WEATHER

Sunday, March 15, 2015

MR. WEATHER

Mr. Gore making faces at web developers

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

-A Gore 1999

1954 - WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), New York, broadcast the first local color television commercials

Many years ago in the late 40’s and early to mid fifties, if you were born today, there were a lot of things that you can’t imagine as you couldn’t have imagined then; what we have today!

Good old Tex!

March has a lot of historical fact to it and going back in time, the weather forecast was a lot simpler and more unpredictable. Tex Antoine was the weatherman I watched, he had his board and was a great personality who made an unfortunate remark once that got his hide tossed from TV land. But he used cutouts on a map of the USA and moved things around for your understanding of how the weather was shaping up, Today, they have these super electronic maps that you just touch with one finger and bang you get the graphic show of a lifetime.

I used to belong to the Automobile Club of America, as I still do, without the maps. If you planned a trip to Hell, they could map it out for you and send you the maps. We lived by them until the GPS came around.

Remember paper files? You kept all your records in folders in a drawer and when you needed them couldn’t find them, now everything is electronic, I still can’t find anything but at least I’m paperless as well as clueless.

TV’s were in their growing stages back in the 50’s, as we shifted from indoor antennae to rooftop ones that announced to the world that you owned a TV. They came with not only the aerial, but tubes, and dials you had to manually turn to put the set on, control the contrast and sound while it snowed and the picture skipped.

They were thick and bulky and for the day, expensive, but every household had to have one. Now they are almost paper thin, with a remote control as the invention of the computer raised technology to new heights.

The car keeps evolving into something that will not need a operator to run it anymore. I used to back out of my driveway, and strain my neck doing so. So for a few weeks while I healed, I had to drive backwards. Today, they install a backup TV and you don’t need to move your head!

Remember trying to park next to a curb, sometimes the passenger in the front seat would have to open his door, lean out and tell you with an estimation just how close you are! Now with sensors, you can kick out the passenger and ride in peace, knowing you will get close to the curb.


To you youngsters, this is a car!

Speaking of backing out, some cars now park themselves, making parallel parking a snap, no more trying to remember your driver manual or teacher instructions on when to cut the wheel.

You had to go to the movies to see a movie, now you just go to Netflix or On Demand and there it is.

So where is this leading us? To a computer program that I can speak into and it types for me, so I don’t worry about spell check, that’s where.