Changes, they are a coming whether we want them or not!

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I always embraced change. Mostly it’s good. Who doesn’t like microwaves and (oh my gosh!) google. Phones that aren’t tethered to the wall. Much as we complain, change is good. This week I was reflecting on changes that made me sad.

Example 1 — Last summer I got a deal that was too good to pass up — three magazine subscriptions for the price of one for two years. It was less than $20 and they were all magazines that I enjoy.

In general magazines have been changing and not for the better. Smaller size, smaller print, recipes that I wouldn’t make in a million years, clothing that is weird. (Yes I’m starting to sound like my Mom or any other old mature person!)

I had decided not to renew any of them although there was one that was still a good size and chocked full of interesting ideas.

This week I got a notice that the magazine I liked was dead. The remainder of my subscription was transferred to another similar magazine.

The previous issue didn’t hint of going out of business. It was all about celebrating its 30th anniversary and toasting the future (which was pretty short lived!).

Example 2 — I met up with some friends from a place I used to work. I am not in touch so I remember it exactly as it was when I left – employees who haven’t aged at all and whose children don’t either. As they were “catching me up” my head was spinning. The 12-year-old of a former employee was having a second child? How could that be? Calculating it all out, she hasn’t been 12 in 10 years at least.

Example 3 — Like lots of other people, I love having merchandise delivered to my door. So much easier. No hassle. What I don’t like is that brick-and-mortar stores are closing or downsizing products so I can’t buy locally or try things on for size. Returns, although much simpler than they used to be, are still a hassle and nailing the fit on shoes or pants is tough.

I can’t have it both ways but I wish I could have a little of both. I can do without magazines but shoes are another story.

What change do you love or not love? Are you surprised when people don’t look exactly like they did last time you saw them?

90 thoughts on “Changes, they are a coming whether we want them or not!”

  2. I mourn the loss of small local restaurants- like those on town corner squares with blue plate specials (Which I hated as a kid as I thought it unfair I had to eat vegetables even when not at home). Luckily we have many small places that open up to maintain their cultural/ethnic foods – but still – all the generic chains make everyplace look exactly the same – no exploration needed, you know exactly what they offer and how it will taste (something traveling kids appreciate).
    All the same concept big box stores/shopping centers make the roadways look almost identical – what fun is that? Each region used to have architecture and style that identified them. Now, boring repetition. Those small shoppes made you feel special. Sadly too hard for them to make it these days. Amazon good, yet the pants and shoes really need to try on.
    (BB&B was bought 5-6 years ago – you may have noticed the product offered changed – suddenly shampoos and ordinary face soaps for example. The same parent company owns Cost Plus/World Market which seems to be doing well unlike BB&B. That one is in trouble.. again. It would be missed)

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    • We have a handful of local restaurants and the turnover is great. This is big diner country and we have a few of those. Best breakfasts ever! Our local BB&B has downsized inventory in the past few years so I end up ordering on-line but it is the only place with a large selection of kitchen stuff. It’s like a candy store for me. We had Linens And Things but they went belly up a while back.

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  4. Unbelievably. I love social media. As a teacher I shouldn’t because it rots your brain, it encourages kids to sit with their phones instead of talking to their families, blah blah, but I love the fact that you can keep contact effortlessly and state a piece of news one time for everyone, as opposed to having to contact 200 people and tell them all individually. It can also help you to remember birthdays and anniversaries.

    That said, the way in which some people use it makes me question why on earth I thought I had anything in common with them! I have one friend (in her 40s) who takes selfie after selfie and posts little else but selfies and, rightly or wrongly, it makes her look vain. And I have another friend who uses social media to brag about expensive things that she has bought. I look at her posts and think, “In an age where more and more people are having to use food banks, do we really want to read about how you’ve just spent that obscene amount of money on that tasteless luxury non-essential item?”

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    • I love social media for all the same reasons as you. I can keep up with my nieces and nephews which I couldn’t before. I have a friend (mid-70s) who is also a selfie taker. I just assume she needs the affirmation from the comments. I had a few acquaintances I blocked because they try to sell products with positive stories. I have become a lot more likely to block someone if they annoy me (or is it snooze them?). Whatever!

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      • I’ve had to unfollow people who post about animal cruelty. I can visualise what it looks like so I don’t really need to see pictures of it, thanks very much! And I unfriended someone else who kept posting memes of people who were unflatteringly dressed, with mean comments about their appearance. A mutual friend told me that this person suffered from depression and that her comments came from a place of despair, but to be honest I didn’t see that as an excuse.

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        • I am in a cat group and every once in a while someone will post about something awful that happened to some cat somewhere. First I don’t even know if it’s true but it always ruins my day. I’ve learned to do a fast scroll. and the administrator had issued some warnings about that. The site is for pleasure not PETA. I have a former colleague from work who is selling vitamins that will make you younger, prettier, (just fill in the blank). I can hook you up with her! 🙂

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  5. By and large I am neutral to positive on most change. However, I hate when a magazine I like goes out of business. Omni, George, Gourmet, and many more. Most of those haven’t been around for a long time and I am still mad about them going away. I also hate when good magazines start declining – less content, smaller size, shifting to other topics than what you liked about them. Sigh. Oh well – as you say – now we have microwaves and Google and all kinds of other good stuff too 🙂

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  6. Yup, a two-edged sword for sure. I’ve let my magazine subscriptions expire. If I feel motivated to see ads, recipes I won’t make or clothes I couldn’t possibly afford, I’ll check them out at the library. At first it was weird but now I rather enjoy it. And no recycling bin filled with them either. Win-win.

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  7. I often wonder what I did before Google to be honest. I don’t think I’ve ever searched for something and not been able to find it and I get a kick out of searching for something I think is obscure and someone else has looked for it as the autocomplete fills in as I’m typing in the search bar. I am a bit of a dinosaur, using my landline all the time (but that’s since I work from home) and having to take my cellphone out to call my landline every few weeks to discharge the battery and charge it up again just to keep the battery in good shape. Yes, I am a bit of an oddity. It is only carried in my fanny pack while walking or running errands for safety sake. So many stores I grew up with or purchased things from over the year have gone belly up. Radio Shack was one of the first stores that I never realized how many little things I got there until they were totally gone. My grocery store shuttered its doors in 2006 after almost 100 years of business. Farmer Jack was part of the A&P chain. It closed unexpectantly, and the store stands vacant 13 years later. If I were to walk around that empty store, all these years later, I could still tell you where everything was. It was the size of a Kroger’s.

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      • Same here – I used to like Lord & Taylor as they had pants with longer legs that were not sized for “tall sizes” and they had wonderful sales before the new season would arrive. I’d go this time of year and get Summer clothes and accessories for work for a song. Our L&T closed several years ago. The only time I use my cellphone is if I have to call an interzone call because I took interzone and long distance off my landline since I don’t call anyone out of my local area and save a little every month. I get no phonecalls either.

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        • When I lived in NJ, Lord and Taylor was my favorite especially for nice clothes. They carried the best selection. Now even our local Macy’s just changed their business model (at least locally). They carry a large discounted section but I miss the beautiful displays and large selection.

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          • I loved Lord & Taylor – always classic clothes and not as trendy as Macy’s. When our Macy’s was originally Hudson’s Department Store, their clothing was similar to Lord & Taylor, then they became Marshall Fields and started getting trendy. Macy’s was more middle of the road and clothes I liked and weren’t all cotton so that you sat in them and looked like you slept in them. I miss the displays too … it was my favorite store for a long time. Nothing is the same anymore and I heard Bed, Bath and Beyond is in dire straits and is looking for a buyer or merger to help it along. That surprised me, though I’ve not been there in quite a while, but I always thought they had good prices and a great selection.

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              • I haven’t been to BB&B in years, but when we repainted, papered, etc. we bought everything there. We were very satisfied.
                Since my mom passed away, I have extra sheets, blankets, towels, etc., so it will be a long time til I have to replenish anything, but pillows and I just get them at Meijer. On my all-news radio station they have the Bloomberg Business Report twice every hour. Last week they said BB&B had leadership problems and would consider downsizing again unless business perked up after the holidays. I just Googled around and the most-recent story was from earlier this year and they mention needing to find a new CEO. The BB&B I always went to moved to another city, but when it was handy, it was always busy – I don’t get it. I never understood why Radio Shack went out of business. Mine had a woman manager and she knew her stuff – she could match knowledge about electronics or parts with any male manager who ever held that position and it was around long before Best Buy. When I go to Best Buy, it is all young help and they talk so fast, half the time I have to ask them to repeat themselves and still leave feeling like I am clueless.

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  8. Print magazines have gone the way of bookstores. I don’t order any of them. I do try to support local businesses by buying from the local Walmart instead of Amazon. It offers everything Amazon does and has free delivery (with a few strings)–and fast. Who knew Walmart would be the little guy, hunh?

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    • I’m not a fan of our local Walmart but I am a fan of supporting local. Sometimes it’s not possible because they no longer carry the variety they used to. I especially worry about hardware stores. They always employed people who could guide you through problems.

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  10. My human dislikes all change that reminds her how old she is. She just got a postcard in the mail yesterday from AARP telling her she’s joined the 50’s club. How dare they tell her her correct age! She set it down and I shredded it for her. What nerve!

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  11. It’s hard to remember that we used to have to type on a typewriter and that every mistake had to be corrected with “whiteout.” Computers are a big improvement. I like email too. I was in Vanuatu when I was studying for my MFA, and I had to send my assignments in a big envelope by air mail. It was very slow and unreliable.

    The funny thing is seeing kids of someone you knew many years ago and thinking you’re seeing the parents. Have you ever don’t that?

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  12. I think you’ve expressed the concerns that I have, too, Kate. I love many things that speak of ease, like restaurants that bring dinner to the door and I can avoid going out to a noisy restaurant. But then I have to consider that I’ve put more of my credit card and personal information on line and I wonder if that’s wise. I want convenience without any of the unintended consequences. I’m ambivalent about entirely too many things these days!

    I think most of my friends haven’t changed much, but I wonder if I see them that way in hopes that they also can say the same about me! 🙂

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    • It’s the friends I don’t see often that surprise me. I saw a woman from my old gym. It was almost 2 years since I saw her and she was on oxygen and a walker. When did that happen! She was a very active person prior to that.

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  13. Most change is ok with me, except the aging thing. When I was working and had to ask for ID’s I would always wonder If I looked as old as they did and I was younger then. 🙀
    I don’t buy magazines or have TV service just Netfix and I don’t have a landline but I do have a microwave and a cell phone.😼

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  14. The same thing happened to me with a favorite old magazine of mine (“Money”), which they’ve transferred all the subscribes to Kiplingers now. I don’t know Kiplinger really except for seeing at airport stands, but I guess I have to try and get used to it. I’m grateful for so many conveniences that make life easier, so I try not to look back too much. But I can’t help but be wistful sometimes. – Marty

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  15. Hi, Kate – Like you, I’d like to have the best of the old and the new.
    Although I haven’t had a landline in years, I miss that so many other people no longer have them as well. If you lose touch with an old friend, and they’re not on Facebook or Social Media, it is no longer easy to just look them up in the white pages (in hard copy or on-line). 😦

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    • That’s true. As I’ve been doing ancestry research (and stalking people I went to school with prior to my class reunion) I found it hard to find people. Especially with everyone so worried about privacy.

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  16. A change I love is ordering my groceries from an app on my phone, selecting a pick-up time and hopping in Olive (my vehicle) and having them brought out and loaded in the back. I still do the shopping for produce and meat. I don’t like the changes in healthcare now that we are in the medicare system and I thank my lucky stars for Tricare for Life, our military health insurance which is our secondary insurance. I love the internet for google, YouTube, and blogs but it sure has killed my book reading time. A change I like is no longer wanting to go shopping at a fru fru mall for stuff that makes me happy and continuing to find happy in the simple things… dinner with friends, seeing an AllieGator, walking downtown Venice to the beach, riding my bike, seeing baby Sandhill Cranes, watching palms sway to the sea breeze, and so much more. Right now I’m not liking hurricanes!

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  17. Honestly, I miss land line phones. Cell phone connections are usually terrible. There is always a point in every conversation where it changes to a warbly connection. I’m also not liking this “facial recognition” stuff I just read about this morning. Who needs “the mark of the beast” when technology can find you without it? Technology is helpful but scary.

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  18. Change is just about the only constant, along with death and taxes.
    So far, I am keeping up, and will do so for as long as I can. I have met a few who resisted change One retired woman will NOT use email (even when she still worked, which led to her being ousted from the job!) and touches a computer only rarely. I feel sorry for them because it only causes difficulties and should they want to get in the game at this late stage, imagine how much harder it will be now!

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  19. Aging should not be for the old (huh?) – but hey – we get set in our ways and being reminded almost constantly that we are OLDER than we ever imagined is bothersome. Can’t read signs as well, can’t judge distances as well, can’t remember EVERYTHING as well – can’t even go to the bathroom as well (hahaha). Seriously though, one thing I miss is POLITENESS. I really do.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • There is so much I don’t want to give up. I spend a lot less time on cooking because microwaves and dishwashers, slow cookers — all of which my mother did not have. Traveling phone is convenient even though I don’t use it much. It’s better than the one tethered to a wall. Older? Boogers. I’m waiting for miracles that make aging better until the day you drop dead.

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  24. Just the other day, I saw someone I hadn’t seen for a long while. I almost went up to them to say hello… until I realized that it couldn’t be who I thought, unless they hadn’t aged in 20 years.

    I love some modern conveniences and technologies but I fear for people who are losing their jobs as business models change and AI takes over.

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  25. I like 98% of all the *modern* changes that I’ve seen and adapted to in my life. I mean, what is, is. I wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for those changes, so to long for the old days would be disingenuous of me. As for the 2% of changes I don’t like, most of them have to do with too many buttons to push that do too many [unwanted] things. Keep it simple, techie people.

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  27. I’d like to live in pre-internet days. Banking at the bank. Shopping at the store. Getting real letters in the mail. Getting word of mouth recommendations for restaurants and plumbers.

    I’d also like to be 37 again. With my nieces and nephews in pre-school saying hilarious things every time they opened their mouths.

    But we are here.
    And it is now.
    So I guess I’ll have to suck it up.

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  28. Some changes are easier to take than others. I agree wholeheartedly about the internet in general. I would never want to give it up!!
    Travel on the other hand is many times worse. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about the experience of flying today.

    When it comes to consumer products, I have to agree with Pensitivity – profit margins seem to weigh heavier than product quality.
    There are certain foods from my youth that I wish I could go back and taste again. I’m convinced today’s product is a pale version of the original.

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    • It sounds silly but donuts don’t taste like they did when they were doughnuts. There used to be a soft wonderful yeast smell and flavor. Now it’s cardboard that people put lots of sugary stuff on top of for flavoring. Travel — yikes! I haven’t flown in several years and have no interest. I’m waiting for Scotty to beam me up. Since I wrote this I found out that a new favorite program was cancelled after one season. It was so good — plot, actors, humor, drama. I’m not the target audience and people seem to like competition shows.

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      • Your last sentence says everything Kate. We are not the target audience for anything except life/medical insurance. The commercial machine which dictates our lives is aimed at generations that have very different perspectives. Recalling my grandmother’s final years (she was living with us), I guess things haven’t really changed. She couldn’t grasp the concept of television!

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        • Jeopardy aside, I’ve never been a follower of game shows. I think they are rigged for ratings. I can’t understand that young folks don’t get that. Then again, they seem to enjoy watching people being mean to each other and brutally competitive. My mother died in ’86 and I’m sure she’s spinning in her grave. Facebook? Really? Dating sites? What happened to meeting people at church, jobs or through friends?

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  29. I am always amazed at how the aging process shows on people I haven’t seen for many years. They look like they are in their 70s! They remind me of my grandparents. I ask myself – what on earth did they do to themselves to look like that? They quite simply look old, and it was only a few years or so (or so … or so) that I last saw them!
    Shaving under my chin while facing the mirror, I noticed the very saggy skin of my neck; the bags under my eyes … and my overall appearance reflecting my age. I wonder what those people thought when they met me? “I wonder if his mind is totally out of touch with his body as well?”

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    • Reminds me of my mom. If we were watching TV and an actor her age came on, she always said “They look so old!” As a youngster I found irony in the fact they she did too but was wise to keep my mouth shut!

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      • I still think much the same as your Mom, in that I YouTube a singer from way back (say Judith Durham from The Seekers) and enjoy the nostalgia …. and then see a recent performance of hers, but not making any allowance for the 40 years in between!

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  30. I don’t like change and technology scares me, not being of the computer age I suppose.
    One of the reasons I left my final job was I didn’t like the way things were going and the company politics. A lot of changes were afoot and we were expected to work in our lunch hours to install the new database. More work, but no extra pay and two people being expected to do the work of originally three but with no holiday cover.
    People, I find it hard to believe they are as old as they are, remembering them as they were, my first nephew who I can remember bouncing on my knee as a baby is now 52!
    In the food line, it’s the ‘new improved recipe’ which means they’ve done away with the ingredient that gave it taste and we hate it, or with detergents, new improved formula which means it either doesn’t work as well or you need to use more for a higher price and smaller package. Profit margins and bonuses before quality IMO.
    Sadly times change, but I’m finding it harder to keep up.

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    • When I first started working everything was manual. I did an invoice clerk job for about a year. It was so boring and so paper intense. When I moved to my last job in the late 90’s, one of the first things I was involved with was upgrading the employee records to the computer. Eventually payroll went that way too. Those were very positive changes as it cut down on errors and lost information. I’ve had to slowly put my toe in the techie water when it came to my own routines but now I rarely write a check. I find my bank’s system are secure and I have an on-line record. Cake mixes, ice cream, etc. has all been downsized without a drop in cost. Yesterday I bought sugar with used to come in 5 lb. packages. It was 4 lbs. As for people both my niece and nephew are retired. How did that happen?

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  31. I was surprised and for a minute I actually wanted to call the police as I saw a guy in a car who peed in his pants once & wasn’t brave enough to go home, so I escorted him to talk with his mom… and that was yesterday… or last week… or really 20 years ago? naaaah….

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