>   My father brought a Encyclopedia Britannia which I loved reading.

We had te 1867 kleather+silver bicentenniel edition of Encyclopedia Britannica,
& also a World Book set.

 >   I would just grab a volume at random, to start, and read from cover to
 > cover.  Later I would read it starting with Volume One.
 >   That disappeared in a move when I was around 13/14.

I did tthat, too, but more often, I'd gran a ramdom one, start reading, then
start chassing citations to read more on a subject that caught my interest. (We
also had the yearly update volume from '68 til '80, as I was long one from home
by then & my younger sibs only used the Worldbook set.)

 > > Yup. My tv, until I was 12, was limited to watching with my parents
 > > whatever they were watching, 

 >   Same here.  
 >   Until I was 18, and on my own, there was only one tv in the house.  And
 > before cable was thought of and only three or four channels.
 >   Now I don't even have a tv.  Got rid of it years ago.  And I don't miss
 > it.

Yup, we had the same, 3 or 4; likely a different set! :D 

Got cable in our town in '78 & my dad got it, as his Saturday wrestling had
moved channels. . . I was stikl the remote, of course, & my dad would ask me to
put it on 10, & I'd ask "channel tewn, or number ten?" as I couldn't not
consider the difference & try to clue into the number he was giving me from the
post-delivered TV gUide(remember it?); eventually he started saying "channel
10(local)" or "number 10(ABC from Seattle); channel 10 moved to 13 with cable &
10 was 4. . . (now ABC's on 2, wheere our first on-screen TV Listing was, also
the old video game consoles! Like the oribinal Pong my dad borrowed one weekend
from a workmate; he was enrtaptured by the tech; I was already blase at 11, in
'78)

 > > Because I was, thank God, raised properly, I did know right from wrong.

 >   Same here.

Makes a nice differtence, erxcept we now know all too well what happens to
thosewhgo weren't. I used to get mad at them all, but now I just pity them.

Aging puts everything into new perspectives, eh?

 > > First saw & rode a city bus at age 19.

 >   I guess I was around 10 at the time.  Had a ride to school then get home
 > on my own.
 >   Today a 10 year-old riding a bus alone would cause a lot of people to go
 > into a swoon.

Was it a city bus or dedicated schoolbus?

 > > Naturally, I sat in the first seats I found empty

 >   I like to ride in back.  That way I can keep an eye on what's going on
 > around me.

I get that; I did that when on Gryhound, going cross-country.

 > > When older folk, especially witgh canes, entewred the bus, I was up like a
 > > shot &6 moving back
 >  
 >    At my age that is getting more and more rare.  :)

I get that.   I'm allowed per my disability (using a cane when not on my
wheelchair) but I got wearied of riding because the only ones who got up to
give me a seat were white haired seniors who maty well havew needed the seat
that day (likely they'd only sat because there wasn't a lot of choice at the
ti8mie)

So, now, with a wheelchair, I have my own bays to park at & be secured; I might
'accidentally' run over & scuff the $400 Nike "kicks" of those college kids
sprawled in the seniors' seat, but never a senor, except once I bumped an 88yo
lafy's shoes (nor harm but she began caterwalling, to force me to be a
gentleman & accept her reparation dsemand of my buying her a drink at her care
home's pub night(that night); at $1 a drink, & bext door to my place, how could
I not?! It was fun -- git my arse whupped by a 102-year-old gent, twice, in
Checkers!  Danced with my 'date' & a few others, up when I could, in my chair
when I needed to.  I like older music (only as far bac, usually, as Big Band /
WW2 era; they were more into what your parents must've listened to as kids. . .

 > > Personally I think this goes with the loss of religion being a part of
 > > modern society/culture.

 >    Agreed.

You've had a few more years to observe the change than I. . .

What year were you born? I'm only as far back as 1967.

Your friend,

<+]:{)}
Cyberpope, Bishop of ROM
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