×
×
homepage logo

CLAYTON RYE

By Staff | Feb 17, 2012

15 years

My wife and I watched a movie this afternoon that was made 15 years ago. It was a movie we had seen several years ago and enjoyed, so it was fun seeing it again. We remembered it was good, but not much more than that.

When it was finished, we talked about what we saw and what we had forgotten about the plot and characters.

But we also talked about what we saw the characters doing. This was a movie from the late 1990s, and it took place during that time.

For example, they talked to each other using a real telephone, not one carried in a pocket. We were almost taken aback at how old-fashioned that appeared.

My favorite memory was a scene at a gas station where the posted price of gasoline was just over $1 a gallon.

Has the world changed that much in 15 years?

Yes, it has.

When we watched the movie the first time, we were using the same analog television we had used for years and thought it was good or certainly good enough.

This time we watched it in high definition, with a sub woofer turned on, to complement the great picture. We were watching the movie with theater-like sound and picture quality while sitting in our living room.

When we saw an actor we thought we recognized from a show of today, we checked his name using the Internet Movie Database from the laptop my wife keeps in front of her in the living room.

We could have used my laptop I keep in front of my chair in the living room, but being six years old and running Windows XP, it is on the slow side. Her’s was new not that long ago. My turn is coming.

So there we were, three of us, my wife, me and the TV itself, all hooked up to the Internet (the TV is wi-fi equipped), all involved in one way or another in watching a movie. Just a regular afternoon in the early part of the 21st century.

I can remember the thrill when I watched the first television pictures in black and white and a fuzzy picture at that. What was amazing then, we would complain about now.

But that was 55 years ago. I was only looking back 15 years ago this afternoon when we were planting 12 rows at a time versus 24 rows now.

Fifteen years ago, a 300-horsepower, four-wheel drive tractor was very capable. Today, that tractor is looking small when 400-hp and up is getting common.

I could easily look up the price of seed, fertilizer and land 15 years ago, but it would be like looking at the sign that said the price of gasoline was just over $1 a gallon.

I guess after all this I am left with the feeling that the world is moving a little faster than I am.

That must mean there is something coming that will be better than my 46-inch high definition TV with stereo sound. And I bet it will take less than 15 years to get here.

I don’t think I can even imagine what it will be like. While that movie will be nearly 30 years old by then, I bet I will laugh in the same places.

Some things won’t change.

Rye is a Farm News staff writer and farmer from Hanlontown. Reach him by e-mail at crye@wctatel.net.