I was thinking today, as I do, occasionally, and I remembered something...
Back in the late 70s, my parents were caught up in the citizens' band radio craze. Anyone as old as me probably remembers CB's. They were the almost-cell phones of the time.
My mom and dad would talk to their friends from a base unit in the house, and from mobile units in their cars. They had "handles;" "Javelin" and "Ding-A-Ling." They aggravated the neighbors by interfering with their television reception (this was before cable, too, younglings; we actually had antennas!) and by then refusing to admit they did.
They got together monthly for a club meeting with the other members of their club, the Communicators. The Communicators recruited others to be Communicators. They had a great social dynamic happening there. Romances happened, marriages were made...and broken up.
Now, I was thinking about this, and I thought of blogging. Bloggers put their opinions out there for sharing...or not. They can excite a group of friends with their witty comments...or incite them with their cutting sarcasm...or bore them to tears on occasion. Bloggers have unique, descriptive names for their blogs...almost "handles." Bloggers have friends who blog. Bloggers try to recruit other bloggers.
Do you suppose...do you suppose...Bloggers are the CBers of the early part of the 21st century?
5 comments:
Now we never had a cb in our house but when I was growing up, my dad was a truck driver. ( he hauled grain) I went on runs with hi quite often in the summer and heard more than my fair share of cb conversations. Most of which were not meant for an 8 or so year old girl.
But it was fun when dads friends who knew I was in the ruck would talk to me.
We used cbs all the time, and in fact I bought myself one about 6 years ago with some birthday money ( before I got my cellphone).
My Dad was The Driller ( he was a dentist). My handle was Dust Devil,a childhood nickname because I was fascinated by the dust devils we saw out west on vacation when I was very small.
When I tried to use the Dust Devil name a few years ago on the cb while driving from GA to Ohio, it was always misinterpreted as a vacuum cleaner.
I think that blogging has killed Ham Radio, actually.
My Mom was a Ham radio operator for quite a few years while I was growing up. Same chatting, different medium.
Well....this is Bugs Bunny (name before braces) 10-8 and 10-10 in the side. We had some great times on our radio...getting people to drive by our house without knowing they were right in front of us. We even met some young boys! Oy! So, I am a CB person turned blogger. (Blogging is much more fun, though! And pretty!)
We also had cb's. My dad was "traincar" and mom was "caboose". They also had a loud speaker mounted on the car. We used to drive around the pool and do the "all swimmers out of the water for a rest period" announcement.
I think cell phones have taken over for cb's.
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