Anonymous "Remember When..."
A computer was something on TV
From a science fiction show of note.
A window was something you hated to clean,
And ram was the cousin of a goat
Meg was the name of my girlfriend.
A gig was a job for the night.
Now they all mean different things,
And that really mega bytes.
An application was for employment.
A program was a TV show.
A cursor used profanity.
A keyboard was a piano.
Memory was something that you lost with age.
A CD was a bank account.
And if you had a three-inch floppy,
You hoped nobody found out.
Compress was something you did to the garbage,
Not something you did to a file.
And if you unzipped anything in public,
You'd be in jail for a while.
Log on was adding wood to the fire.
Hard drive was a long trip on the road.
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived.
And a backup happened to your commode.
Cut, you did with a pocket knife.
Paste, you did with glue.
A web was a spider's home.
And a virus was the flu.
I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash,
But when it happens they wish they were dead.
This poem is explaining how words that are used now, primarily with computers, were words prior to computers and had a completely different meaning. This poem goes through all the words that are associated to computers like meg, mouse, application, program, cursor, keyboard, cd, memory, three-inch floppy, compress, and zip. All of these words have such a different meaning now rather than fifty years ago. The reason in which I chose this poem is because it is one of my favorites. Like I have state previously, I love puns and this poem is full of them. Not only does the pun aspect of the poem amuse me, but it also makes me think of how the world has changed. Prior to computers coming out, all these words had different meanings, and most of the older generation still looks at them with the meanings in which they grew up with. I get humor from it primarily because growing up with my grandparents made me the most technologically savvy person in the house, but that is not saying much!