The Rabbit Died

Don't get excited, it's just the post title. You younger readers may not know this, but once upon a time, a test for pregnancy involved injecting a rabbit with urine from a woman being tested. The rabbit was then killed and the ovaries were examined. Ovary changes indicated that the woman was pregnant. (The rabbit always died so the ovaries could be inspected. It wasn't just when the woman was pregnant.)

Can you imagine going through life, knowing that a bunny died so your mother could find out she was going to have you? Fortunately, this practice went away in the 30's.

It feels odd knowing so many things that younger people know nothing about. I remember a time when there was no color TV, no touch-tone phones (or cellphones), no pocket calculators (except slide rules). I remember when there were no personal computers, when talking of landing on the moon was pie in the sky talk. Kids today grew up with all these things (and I'm jealous!). They can't imagine a life without email.

Things like the rabbit test ended before I was born, but they were part of our culture, of general knowledge. It's been so long now that even the hearsay is fading, and is not part of the cultural literacy that our children are absorbing.

My dad remembers the Korean War, World War II, and songs and movies I've never even heard of ("I’m a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin’ Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues"). My grandparents lived through World War I, the depression, the advent of cars and television and airplanes.

Growing up, you learned what the world was like, and it felt as if it had always been that way. As the years slowly passed, things slowly changed, but you didn't notice them that much. Then, as you get into your thirties, you start being able to look back over your life and marvel at the changes that have been wrought. You begin to realize that the world is not static. You begin to mourn the things that you've lost, that the world has lost, that will never be back again. I can't imagine what it will be like twenty, thirty, forty years from now. Some day I will, I guess.


Blog Tag: Opinion