BACK IN THE DAY . . . by Diane Kelly

Okay, I admit I’m not a technology whiz. Not an idiot, but not a whiz. I’ll never be an “early adopter.” Instead, I’m one of those people who waits until a high-tech product is on its third or fourth generation and the price has come down significantly before buying some new gadget. I don’t fear learning something new, I just find it annoying to have to spend time mastering yet another new system when I just got the hang of the earlier way of doing things. I often joke that I was born in the wrong place and time and would have been very happy living as a cavewoman with no technology.

There would be lots of benefits of being a cavewoman. For one, we wouldn’t have to shave our legs or armpits. In fact, we’d need the hair to keep us warm. Secondly, no vacuuming. What would be the point of vacuuming a dirt floor?  Ditto for dusting. Since we’d only have one or two animal skins to wear, laundry would be minimal. And we wouldn’t be expected to fix gourmet meals for dinner. Heck, our families would probably be happy to get some type of soup made from tree bark and roots. My only concern about being a cavewoman is that I wouldn’t get to be a writer. I suppose I could tell my stories another way, through cave drawings in a sort of storyboard format or perhaps tell them aloud through a series of grunts and snorts and pantomime. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable acting out the romantic scenes, though. That could be a little awkward. :  )

If you could choose to be born in a different time and/or place, when and where would it be and why? Would you rather go back to the past, or venture into the future?  How would living in a different time and place affect who you are and what you do with your life?