My father was born in 1934. His family lived off a dirt road in Phenix City, Alabama in the midst of the Great Depression. The world he opened his eyes to had no television, computers or internet. Electric lights were as rare as indoor plumbing, milk came from a neighbor’s cow, and families gathered around small radios instead of giant screens to get their news.
He grew up in a world of handshakes and hard work, of faith and front porches. He went to school in Galena Park, Texas, raised his family in Anaheim, California. He built successful businesses in Santa Ana and Houston, and eventually retired to the water in Hollywood, Florida. Along the way, he witnessed a world transform – from telegraphs to smart phones, from prop planes to Mars landings, from hand-drawn maps to a GPS in every pocket.
In one lifetime, his lifetime, humanity split the atom, cured diseases, connected continents, and digitized nearly everything. The pace of progress has been breathtaking…