I don't expect them back ever, but I do miss manual typewriters, and especially the portable ones, which in addition to giving satisfying text also provided immense pleasure to me as instruments of percussion -- whap, whap,
whappety, whap. ding, boom. On behalf of the next generation, I miss the days when states considered supporting post secondary education as good investment and a boon to the future, so grads were ready for life and not buried in debt for the foreseeable future. I miss the days when childhood had large increments of independence to roam the countryside and/or towns with freedom and reasonable safety, and every activity in life wasn't organized and supervised by adults. My dad's dog could jump in the school house window and sleep at his feet under his desk, because Spot was well behaved. I was so lucky as to know all four of my grandparents personally because everyone hadn't scattered to the ends of the world. Growing up, I knew what my dad did for a living, accompanied him to work on the winter holidays, and I knew the story of my family history. Many children do not know what their parents do for a living and do not know from whence their family immigrated. I have a theory that people don't evolve upward in life, but only trade off one set of abilities and strengths for others as they go along, gaining some but losing others. I think perhaps nations and civilizations do likewise, and that progress is trading off one set of benefits for others, giving up many as we go. Human history is one long trek from Eden.
