Everything Old is New Again

Nowadays everyone who has an opinion is blogging, texting or tweeting that opinion to the world. Where can you find a lot of these people? They are in the coffee shop. They are using the free wi-fi to upload blog posts and their hand held devices to send their 140 character thoughts through the airwaves while having a coffee. Since you can only use 140 characters a new form of writing has become necessary. The coffee shop has become a place of business for a lot of people.

So let’s rewind about three or four hundred years. What were people doing? Oh yes, they were voicing opinions but the way those opinions were sent out into the world was a printed pamphlet. Oh, but these were very expensive so they had to develop a new form of writing to use less characters to get their message across. Hmmm

The coffee house was the hub of the community, next to the public house. Coffee was all the rage and coffee houses were the place to see and be seen. Samuel Pepys and Samuel Johnston frequented them. Business was also conducted in the coffee house.

Everything old is new again. What are you doing now that your ancestors might have been doing three or four hundred years ago? If you did not have any of the currently available technology is your life really all that different from your ancestors?

©2010 – Blair Archival Research

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