Both of my parents died in 1997. To convince myself that 1997 was long ago (and that I am old) I look for situations that I know would flummox them were they still alive. What would they find disconcerting? My father, who always knew where he was going and often picked me up from the airport, would have no idea what a cellphone lot or even a cellphone is.
Weekly, I am reminded of how my mother would turn to the wedding announcements in the NewYork Times. No more Smith girls marrying Yale men, walked down the aisle by their industrialist fathers. Instead same sex couples, graduates of colleges she did not aspire to, smile out at us.
So glad to have lived to see it all.
Just a few days ago, I was talking to a childhood friend about this very topic. But we focused on the political situation and couldn't help but keep saying "They would have died if they had known..."