Gavin Turns Twenty

Two simultaneous posts: I know, it's weird. However it didn't seem right to put the photo from Gavin's birthday into Hannah's post. A separate post seemed more appropriate. Check out the huge candle in the cake. Dinner was my responsibility that evening; I forgot the birthday candles.

It's weird that G's no longer a teenager. While sitting down and thinking about how old we're getting (yes, that's a bald spot in the last post), I thought about how much the world has changed since Gavin came into the world. Here's a short list of things that come to mind:

• We've fought in two wars in Irag and one in Afghanistan. Except for the first gulf war, the outcomes and long term impact are still uncertain.


• There was no internet in 1989. Ok, there was a an internet, but virtually no one was using it. Personal computers ran MS/Dos or an early Mac OS. No one surfed the web. I got my first windows computer with AOL in 1995. We all sat down in the family room and cruised the web at 28.8 speed.


• Cell phones were the size of small boom boxes with huge antennas. Today, kids don't even talk on them. At least my kids don't.


• VHS was just beating out Betamax to become the standard. No one was watching movies on DVD.


• Music was purchased on cassettes, but CD's were becoming more common. Today, CD's and record stores are becoming a thing of the past. iTunes and iPods have fundamentally changed the industry. I saw an interview with Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic recently; he was announcing the closure of the last Virgin Megastore in the US.


• The Berlin wall fell, Germany was reunited and Russia became a democratic country, or did it?


• Many South Africans lived under Apartheid. Mandella was an opposition leader yet to lead the country through the truth and reconciliation process.


• Gavin has lived in Cleveland Heights, Rocky River, North Royalton, Gurnee, Grayslake, Shaker Heights, and Simsbury. He's gone to elementary, middle, high school and is now in college. Happy birthday, Gav!

I'm sure I've missed a ton: if you're motivated, add them to the bottom of the post.

Jeff