Ch-ch-ch-changes...

"Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes..." sang Mr. Bowie, a long long time ago.

For the last few months I've been busy reconnecting with former classmates, with the culmination of our 25th high school reunion occurring this past weekend.

It was a blast. A great turnout; fun people; good conversation; a LOT of laughing; and many, many walks down memory lane.

Which got me thinking about just how much the world HAS changed in 25 years.

The year that I left high school ... 1984, with all of its Orwellian overtones...

• AT&T - a.k.a. MaBell - was 'divested' (broke up into lots of smaller companies)
• Apple introduced the Mackintosh computer (which was mostly used by new college freshmen to play donkey kong)
• One month before winning 8 Grammy's for Thriller, Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial, begin his spiral into drug dependency.
• The Soviet Union (yes, not yet Russia again) boycotted the summer Olympics in Los Angeles, allowing the women's gymnastics team, led by Mary Lou Retton, to take home lots of gold.
• Virgin Atlantic Airways made its inaugural flight.
• Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign her crown after nude photos of her show up in Penthouse (oops).
• Crack cocaine is first introduced in Los Angeles beginning what became a drug epidemic
  

Oh, and all of my papers were typed on an electric typewriter, my car still had an am only radio, and I listened to albums and cassette tapes (although my boyfriend at the time had a new-fangled 'cd player').

How far we've come in 25 years.

As people, as a planet.

... with so many opportunities left for innovation, for creation, for improvement.

I wonder what the next 25 will bring?