This week is my birthday.

Well, by the time you’re reading this, my birthday will have already passed. But since I’m writing this before my birthday, and I can’t possibly know what’s actually going to happen, I’m just going to assume and project all the good feelings and say that it was wonderful!

I have faith! 😂

As I was thinking back over the years of my life, a small twinkle of realization turned into a glaring light.

So many things have changed.

It’s simply remarkable.

I decided to sit down and really think back to my birth year, 1970, and reminisce about the things I grew up with compared to where I am now.

You know, maybe that’s why it started as a twinkle of recognition. Because when I was living it, it didn’t feel like I was experiencing some grand transition into something else. It just felt like my life.

I was living it. Enjoying it. Growing up.

And now here I am, 56 years later, looking back and realizing just how much the world changed while I was busy living in it.

Am I too young to recollect?

Nah. I don’t think so.

I think all of us should remember and tell stories to those coming after us. There’s much to learn from the past, and I think it’s our responsibility not to forget.

So let’s go back to 1970.

We were in the middle of the Vietnam War, such a difficult time for our nation. Richard Nixon was president, and the Cold War was very much a part of everyday life.

In April of that year, Apollo 13 launched. A few days later, an oxygen tank exploded, and the mission nearly became a disaster. The astronauts survived, and “Houston, we have a problem” became one of the most famous phrases in history.

The average price of gas was around 36 cents a gallon.

A new house cost about $23,000, and the average annual household income was around $9,000.

Mind blown.

But for me, none of that mattered.

I was just entering the world, and life was an oyster stretched out in front of me.

Although at the time, all I really wanted was food and a diaper change. 😂

In those 56 years between then and now, the world became almost unrecognizable.

At five years old, I grabbed my Big Chief writing tablet and my Garfield pencil box and headed off to my very first day of school.

Back then, we stayed in the same classroom all day. You got to know your teacher and your fellow students pretty well.

Elementary school was filled with reading, writing, and arithmetic, and I won the spelling bee for two years in a row.

Pretty proud of that. 😂

Middle school felt a lot like the worst years of my life.

At least that’s what I thought back then.

When you’re a kid, every single little thing can become a drama, especially if you’re me. 😂

But it was in middle school that I began to learn about science, the stars in the sky, and the planets. I remember my sixth-grade project being quite a complex model of the solar system.

Another thing I’m pretty proud of.

And then came high school, with all of its spiral perms, teased hair, parachute pants, penny loafers, and Aqua Net.

It was a glorious time!

Back when you could find your friends hanging out at the local McDonald’s or driving their cars in a never-ending loop around the mall.

Back when your parents might sit at home and watch Dallas or Dynasty on a tube TV with rabbit ears on top covered in tin foil because there were only three channels to speak of, and they were difficult to bring in.

I remember my first pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.

This was a big deal.

We didn’t come from generational wealth or anything. Most of the time, we got our jeans at the Lee outlet factory in Monroeville. They were the rejects and misfits.

I didn’t understand that as a kid, and I always wondered why one leg of my jeans was a little shorter than the other.

It didn’t matter, though, because we always rolled them up real tight to the ankle anyway.

And if you were a cool kid, you had penny loafers.

I don’t remember ever having any of those. I likely wore my tennis shoes from TG&Y.

These were the days when you left the house and no one could reach you.

Cell phones weren’t even imagined yet.

We had rotary phones with long cords, if you were lucky, and landlines proudly mounted on the kitchen wall.

And if you wanted to talk to someone, you couldn’t just send them a text. You had to call the house, ask for them, and hope someone in their family could find them so you could talk.

If you were headed on a trip out of town, you better grab that giant atlas.

I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to make it the size of a poster board.

You’d take a yellow highlighter and highlight your way along the route you wanted to take. Then you’d pile into the car and hit the road.

Who needed a seatbelt?

You’d pile up two or three kids high in the back seat, the air conditioner probably only worked half the time, and the road seemed never-ending.

But some of the best memories were made along the way.

Remember “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall?”

Except we couldn’t sing that at our house because my mother, Lanita, wasn’t having it.

It was 99 bottles of water on the wall for us.

And if you needed to find something, you better find an encyclopedia at the local library and look it up.

And how about the Dewey Decimal System?

Does that even exist anymore?

There was no Google. No search engines. Nothing even close to it.

Does anyone else remember calling the movie theater just to hear the recorded movie times?

Or how about when they had a number you could call for the time and temperature?

And how about writing a check?

If you pull one of those out today, people wonder what planet you’re from.

Back then, people actually balanced their checkbooks.

We mailed letters to one another, and they were handwritten.

I think I’d faint if that happened to me nowadays. 😂

And how about Christmas catalogs?

Oh my goodness.

I couldn’t wait for the Sears or JC Penney Christmas catalog to come in the mail. I would circle so many things on so many pages.

I don’t know if I ever got a single one of those things.

Don’t get me wrong, Christmas was always just fine for us.

But it was never straight out of the Christmas catalog.

Then, as young adults, we’d go to Blockbuster or Movie Gallery.

Remember those?

I was surprised when I read recently that the last Blockbuster store closed. Well, at least the last one to speak of. There may be some obscure one out there somewhere, but the brand is gone.

That made me strangely sad.

I still remember VCR tapes.

As a matter of fact, I remember cassette tapes.

I think I still have a VCR tape somewhere around the house. Who knows what’s on it, and who knows if I’d even be able to play it?

And probably one of the coolest things I ever had was a Walkman.

I don’t even know how old I was when I got it. I’m sure I was in high school or older.

But I remember thinking I was one cool girl.

I think mine might have even been a CD Walkman. I’m not sure.

But I remember how good it felt to have one.

So many good memories.

So much life.

I miss seeing kids playing in the yards these days.

I’m not saying they don’t play outside. I’m sure they do.

But it’s not like it used to be, when we would gather en masse in someone’s yard or an empty lot for an impromptu game of kickball or softball.

Back when we shared the closest water hose with each other, even though the water was hot in the summer.

When family dinner was around the table each evening.

When most every kid you knew was wearing hand-me-downs.

When we played outside until the streetlights came on.

When nearly everybody went to church on Sunday.

Life was simpler.

I’m not going to argue whether or not it was better, because I think that depends on perspective.

I’m just feeling pretty grateful that I got to be here for all of these changes.

I got to see it.

I got to live it.

And I think life is good no matter what the view looks like.

That doesn’t mean it will always be easy.

But it’s good.

I do miss those childhood days from time to time, though.

Back when I learned how to type on a typewriter.

Back before there were computers.

Back when the hardest thing in my life was math.

Those were great days.

But here’s the thing I’ve realized while thinking about all of this.

The world changed, but so did I.

I didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly realize I was living in a completely different world.

I just kept going.

I went from a little girl with a Big Chief tablet and a Garfield pencil box…

to a teenager with spiral perms and parachute pants…

to a young woman with a Walkman…

to a wife…

to a mother…

to the woman sitting here today, writing about the little girl I used to be.

And somehow, 56 years passed.

Hard to believe I’ve gone from a world before there was an internet to a world with artificial intelligence.

That’s quite a lifespan.

And I don’t want to spend my birthday wishing I could go backward.

I just want to be grateful that I got to see all of it.

The rotary phones.

The water hoses.

The handwritten letters.

The Christmas catalogs.

The mall.

The music.

The kids playing until the streetlights came on.

The people I’ve loved.

The things I’ve lost.

The things I’ve learned.

The things that are still unfolding.

So here I am, 56 years after that little girl entered the world in 1970.

Still remembering.

Still learning.

Still laughing.

Still changing.

And still incredibly grateful to be here.

Happy birthday to me.

I think it’s going to be a good year.