26.How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child?

· We wrote letters and received them too. I had a German girl for a pen-pal and we wrote letters back and forth on special paper that was extra light. It cost more to send letters "air mail".  Pen-pals were big. Pre-Facebook Friends.       Our telephone was on a party line that you only picked up when you recognized your ring. Sometimes one of the  other people on the line would pick up and listen. It was where I first heard the  comment "I don't think we're alone".       My sister and I dreamed of walkie-talkies (we actually had a pair - but they didn't last long). Cell phones are that dream come true.       We only had cartoons on Saturdays and we were limited to 1 hour. I can remember thinking- " I'll let my kids watch all the cartoons they want".
Now you can watch cartoon 24/7.       We played outside all the time- together, alone, with friends. No TV during the day- and no computers or "small screens".       If we had a question, we asked our mom and she told us to look it up in the dictionary or we went to the library. 
Now we Google everything!
We played cards and Scrabble with our family- not on the computer, a hand held device or on-line.       My folks had company over for dinner (often) and they brought their kids.·       Our folks took us with them to dances when we were little. Lots of people went to dances- at the Grange and the American Legion Hall. It was a family event- although when I was 13 I asked  mama not to speak to me if she saw me with a talk skinny kid (Johnny Hills). I always got flustered with introductions- it would have been the most embarrassing thing in the world.