My grandmother was born in 1895, and we used to talk about all the amazing changes that had occurred during her life.

There is no way my own life -- even if I do live to be 94 -- will have the same level of changes hers did. When she was born, most Americans lived on farms without electricity or indoor plumbing. They used horses and buggies for short trips and coal-powered trains for long trips. No one yet flew, and there was no penicillin for infections. There were no motion pictures, television or even radio.

What didn't we have when I was born in 1949? I don't need to go into most of them, but I will mention one thing.

[caption id="attachment_1847" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="iTunes"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo.png"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1847" title="itunes-logo" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo-300x300.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

We didn't have iTunes.

That might not sound like a big deal, but there are several ways in which it is just <em>huge</em> for people who love music. In the late 1970s, when the size of my record collection peaked, I had about 600 record albums. If you figure an average of about 11 songs per album, that means I had about 6,600 songs.

As I started moving around the country in the '80s, my collection got smaller and music became something to be listened to on the radio.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;