What's Twenty Years?

Courtesy of e-vint.com

I'm working on a new writing project (you can learn about it under my new "books" tab, above) that is set during 1926--the height of America's "Noble Experiment," better known as prohibition. Most of you know that for the past few years I've been buried up to my elbows with writing a series based during 1906. This is a whole new world for me.

How tough can it be, I asked myself. What's the difference between 1906 and 1926? It's only twenty years, right?

ONLY twenty years? What was I thinking? The changes that occurred between 1906 and 1926 make me dizzy with wonder. Fashions, attitudes, politics, technology--everything changed.

I mentioned that to a friend recently and she laughed. "Think about what's changed for us during the last twenty years!" I hadn't really considered it, but if you remember back to 1991, the world was pretty different. Computers had become relatively common, but e-mail was still a new technology. My first experiences with the internet and "world wide web" were in the mid-90s. Cell phones were around, but they were--remember this?--for CALLING people. Could we have imagined the changes the next twenty years would bring? Email, google, FaceBook, Twitter, texting...(ahem) sex-ting? Online bullying? On-line education? Googling?

Styles have also changed. Remember oversized sweatshirts in neon colors worn with matching slouch socks over black leggings? Grunge? A few years later, bare midriffs were all the rage.

Scary! So, what's twenty years? A whole new world. It makes me wonder what 2031 will look like.

I think I'd better go clean out my closets.