Thoughts on Multiliteracy #2

After the last entry, I thought of an incident when I was a small boy in the southern part of Illinois more than 50 years ago: the death of my great-great aunt Victoria Pickens. "Aunt Vic," according to my maternal grandmother, had seen Abraham Lincoln and also remembered when there were Native Americans where we lived. More to the point, she had seen railroads become commonplace and had had to come to terms with "electrification" (my grandmother's word), cars, radio, and even air travel; she would also have become more globalized, due to the effects of World Wars I and II, and more "liberated" (due to universal sufferage). What an increase in inputs to her understanding! How her thinking must've changed!

My grandmothers added even more inputs. My maternal grandmother, Mamaw Cook, took societal changes by the tail and became the first woman in her family to bob her hair, drive a car, and get a divorce. My paternal grandmother, Granny Oliver, had an easy-going acceptance of "technology," since she kept her radio going almost all day long and was also one of the first in our small town to get a TV. Both died in the late 70s, so they experienced even more rapid changes in society and technology than "Aunt Vic"—changes which have continued their onward rush from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.


I suppose the inputs to my own understanding have actually been just as dramatic as those to "Aunt Vic" and my grandmothers. As a Baby Boomer, I remember the residue of Commie Bashing, newsreels at the movie theatre, the assassination of JFK, segregation before the Civil Rights Era, the birth of the Nation of Islam, the horrors of the war in Vietnam and the omnipotence of the draft board, and the Hippie Era. I also saw global air travel become commonplace, lived through UFO mania, came to take TV for granted, was forced to become part of the Computer Age, and made my first foray into cyberspace more than 20 years ago. My literacies changed, have changed, are changing, and will change even more.