Remember Meg Ryan’s boyfriend, Frank, in “You’ve Got Mail”? He had a bit of an obsession with typewriters.

Some kids today may not know what a typewriter is. (Gasp.) But I think Frank was on to something.

There were no Blackberry devices back then, none of these Smartphones, no tablets, nada. If there had been, his obsession with the old in the face of the new may very well have landed him in a mental institution, and we’d have an entirely different movie. Sure, there were computers, but by today’s standards they were archaic.

Sometimes I think of moving away to live in a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps Kansas. Maybe Iowa. It could be Nebraska. Maybe even eastern Colorado. Who knows. The neighbors wouldn’t be close, and the residence wouldn’t be updated; it would likely have peeling wallpaper, a screen door or three that doesn’t fully shut or gets hung up for no reason, and it wouldn’t have A/C. It may have two or three bathrooms, but only one would be fully functional. It would be simple, and some might call it uncivilized. But in this case, simple trumps civilized, though I fully realize it’s possible to have both.

One thing it would have, however, is a typewriter.

For as often as I think about the way things used to be, and for as often as I wish to be Blackberry-less and lacking the convenience to sit here on the couch blogging with Cooking Channel on in the background, the truth is that I’m thankful for being part of a generation with one foot firmly rooted in the past, mindful of simpler times, but with the ability to have technology at my fingertips when I want it.

I’m sure all generations have something that defines past/present for them. From no cars to seeing the birth of the automobile, or from no planes to seeing air travel take off, so to speak, etc.

Tonight, with a blog in the present and typewritten school reports in the past, I’m thankful for my generation and for our means of communication taking on a new face. I can’t imagine how much more it will change in my lifetime, or for generations to come.