[speaker001:] what was the topic
[speaker002:] uh just about um it would be interesting to discuss the social changes of the last ten or twenty years
[speaker001:] I said uh right right yeah
[speaker002:] and um I guess for me the most obvious is women in the work field
[speaker001:] well that's a good one I hadn't thought about that yeah
[speaker002:] that uh of course when I was growing up not very many women went to work at all most everyone was at home
[speaker001:] yeah really
[speaker002:] and some of my friends whose mothers were teachers or something seemed a little bit embarrassed that their mothers weren't at home
[speaker001:] uh oh there there was a stigma attached to it
[speaker002:] yes and uh but nowadays it's just so common
[speaker001:] and and a necessity
[speaker002:] a necessity and that when I am uh at home now that I've had children I've stopped uh working
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] that it's kind of embarrassing when I go to a store and they ask uh when I write a check out and then they say can I have your work number please and then I don't have a work number to get give to them and they begin to think um I wonder if this is a good check
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah really I well I hadn't thought about it I can see I I think if they asked me for a work number I'd just write down my home number you know because that's where you work
[speaker002:] uh-huh right
[speaker001:] yeah well the thing that I was thinking about uh huh you know social changes I I thought well you know in a lot of different ways I I think number one just the the makeup of American society how much it's changed I mean uh uh I live in Houston but I'm I'm in Miami right now on business and uh I mean in Miami it's I mean honestly English is almost a second language now
[speaker002:] um-hum yes
[speaker001:] uh you know with all the uh influx of uh South Americans and uh Cubans and the the Latins are are just uh I I guess a majority in Miami you know of course in Houston uh you've got the people from Mexico so that's certainly a change in the the fabric of society uh
[speaker002:] that's true
[speaker001:] the other thing that I was thinking about uh the way that things have changed so dramatically is twenty or thirty years ago uh you know air travel was still uh and not that much in the forefront uh uh and and now I mean it's you know hardly anybody thinks anything about getting on a plane and and going cross country
[speaker002:] uh-huh right
[speaker001:] plus the other thing I was thinking about was just the very fact that we're doing what we're doing tonight uh you know calling a one eight hundred number having a computer hook us up uh tell us the topic of conversation uh and and we take that rather for granted
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum right
[speaker001:] uh you know thirty years ago uh a long distance phone call was a sort of a special event
[speaker002:] yes that's true
[speaker001:] and and and you know and it wouldn't be uncommon for it to have been placed through an operator up I don't know if you know I guess you maybe they did have one plus dialing uh in nineteen sixty one but uh I I'm not sure of that
[speaker002:] right no and it wasn't like my parents always watch the clock carefully when they make any long distance phone call and it's it's pennies but for them it's just a socialized behavior
[speaker001:] oh yeah that's right and it harks back to the days like I say when when a long distance call was an expensive uh uh I don't want to say a frivolous but it was an extravagant uh event
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and good grief if my parents knew what my long distance bill was every month they'd have a stroke
[speaker002:] that's true that's probably true
[speaker001:] but you know it's something that I've just I mean I factor that in I mean that's that's part of my budget I mean I expect to have you know a seventy or eighty dollar phone bill and quite frankly am pleased if it's anything below that
[speaker002:] um-hum right me too
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] well that's good in in in our homes we all have a lot uh much more high tech compared to the people ten twenty years ago
[speaker001:] oh well and you know microwaves
[speaker002:] right unbelievable and everyone has uh multiple televisions probably and
[speaker001:] oh I've got yeah I mean I've I'm single and I have three televisions you know and I really they're two well
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] one of them is primary and the other one I turn on maybe three times a month and I've got another one I bet I haven't turned on in six months I mean it's there you know
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I think about it too I have uh uh four telephones
[speaker002:] right we load up on all of the conveniences and they're not special to us anymore just a
[speaker001:] um that's right that's right
[speaker002:] necessity and there's the people who don't have televisions are are uh you know unusual in our society
[speaker001:] yeah uh yeah it almost like uh you know it's a big uh issue I've run across a few people before that that you know make a make a point uh that uh the fact that they uh don't own a television and of course you know people look at them yeah like yeah you know but
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and it's it's it would be really quite frankly even though I am not