I am a part of a generation known as "millennials." In other words, I have grown up nearly my entire life with technology and its limitless uses easily accessible from the palm of my hand. Often, I look at the people in my life who are generations older than I am and wonder, "How did they do it?"
As my dad used to say, "Back in my day running water meant you were running with two buckets of water in each hand." Though it's a bit of an exaggeration on his part, the meaning behind it is true.
Times have changed.
A tractor without a cab and air conditioning seems like a thing of the past. When the sun was hot, there wasn't a button to push. Seats were less comfortable, and the options of what the tractor could do were far more limited than compared to today's models.
How did farmers and ranchers go without the comforts and diversity we now have in most farm equipment?
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"I will call you guys when supper is ready," mom would say to my father and two brothers as they would rush off to get into the field. How did they do it before the effortless communication we now have while family and friends are in the field or pasture?
My two grandmas both had large families, and more kids meant more helpers on the farm. Now large families are far less common in my generation and I wonder, how did they do it?
They didn't have the luxury of pulling up a recipe on a phone or watching a YouTube video to explain how to properly prepare the meal. And getting groceries was a not-so-easy task, compared to a quick trip to Walmart today. How did they make feeding such large families seem so easy?
Even now, as I partake in a summer internship for Agweek, I experienced a generation gap. Jonathan Knutson, who has been an Agweek journalist for years, showed me his essentials. They included a notepad and a recording device, and he concluded with a helpful tip to get these things myself for doing interviews. Reluctantly, I asked, "Would a phone serve the same purpose? It records, and I can keep notes on it as well."
Sincerely, I, and so many others, respect the way of life before the new wave of technology started to advance and reshape our everyday lives. In 10 years, things will be completely different, but it's important to look back at past decades and give credit where it's due - to agriculturists who lived in a time where things weren't so easy and ask the question: How did they possibly do it?
