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.