So many things but I'm happy about Toilet tissue and feminine hygiene.

I love the paper towels that have a choice of length. Also love the little gizmo to release jar lids.

I vote for inside plumbing! No chamber pots or treks to the outhouse for me, please.

the computer

Television!

The microwave. I don't actually "cook" much other than veggies in it, but just think how much time and effort it saves when heating up things like a cup of coffee or thawing all kinds of foods. And reheated leftovers are so much better and with less utensils to clean up

I sure agree on "indoor plumbing" and second, the computer.

yes Indoor plumbing and toilet tissue for sure, I remember the old out house and the catalogs paper! Hot as hades in summer and you had to fight the wasps.

Newer age for sure the computer and most other electronic devices including the tv and surround sound.

but we would be hard pressed if they took our refrigerators from us! And the ice maker too! Our AC or heat too!

Just experience a period of time with no electricity or the plumbing out of order to know just how much we appreciate those things. And for those times God bless the generator!

I agree with most of the above. My DH often teased me about "you would never have made it across to the West in a covered wagon." He was so right!

I was recently asked if I had to give up TV or my computer, which would I give up? No question about it, I would give up TV. So much of what is on TV now is worthless, at least to me, and much of it can be found on the computer any way.

Sue

For me, without a doubt, all modes of transportation.

The computer age allowed me, as a disabled person, to be able to earn a decent living. Enough so that I no longer had to depend on my family for income. I've been living independently and that was an accomplishment that I never thought it would be possible in my situation.

2nd to this is the internet. It opened up a world of learning and friendship at the comfort of my home. Of course, as with any public domain, we need to be wise in what to feed our minds with.

Plus, electricity and all the appliances along with vehicle. Without these, I wouldn't have an independent life neither. I'd be a dead vegetable fenced in and grounded within 4 walls.

ntt hou, I was so moved by your post. I don't know you but am so happy that you have been able to create such a successful place for yourself. You are an inspiration. Satine

Ditto satine. It's wonderful ntt hou that you have such freedom. What a moving post.

Gosh, I love everyone's responses. The indoor plumbing should have been mine, too. I grew up with an outhouse down by the alley.. My car, too.

ntt, I second the computer! And take it a step further
and say the best invention is Google. Love the search engine. LOVE my android phone!

Washing machine, no doubt.

I couldn't live without wheels and fire.

The zipper.

Rice packs to heat in the microwave for aches and pains....I use mine DAILY several times a day and they help with Fibro!!!! (And just getting warmed up when ya can't seem to any other way, too.)

nola anne

I would have to say electricity.Without it we would not be able to have so many things that we have become dependent on.

I hope that my life would inspire someone to do better. It is my true life story, no made up.

Although, we live in a bad economy condition, we, in the US, are still in much better condition than many other countries. My mom often said that if we were still living in our country, there would be no way that I would even have 1 opportunity as I have here to make a decent life for myself. In the US, we are free to do what we chose to do for our lives, a freedom that is seldom found in many countries. Please make the best out of it as you can.

I'm not trying to preach here but just try to let others see what is offered with our freedom. How well we're still off than others. I hear too many complaints and not much do about it.

Sometime though, I do believe that many have been spoiled by our freedom. It's like if we have little of something, we strive hard and work for it, and if we have too much of it, we take it for granted. Does it make sense?

My list of inventions that have impacted our lives:

1. Matches - This was a very useful item in its day. It was used to start a fire in stoves and camps. Before electricity, matches were used every day to light lamps and gas appliances. Other inventions followed such as the cigarette lighter, but these inventions were inspired by the match.

2. Radio - One early use for radio was to send morse code. Ships at sea adopted this invention as soon as there were working models available. The invention was improved and there followed AM (amplitude modulation) that could impress voice and music on radio emissions. FM (frequency modulation) followed to meet the desire to evade static that plagued AM. TV was an outgrowth of radio. The picture content was encoded as AM and the sound was FM. The development of RADAR followed and alongside radar was radio telescopes. A whole new industry to manufacture vacuum tubes sprang up that was needed to build electronic circuitry. The heyday of this industry was short lived between the years 1920 through 1960. Vacuum tubes were being replaces with transitors by 1960.

3. Transistors - see radio above. The appearance of the transistor was followed by micro-circuits grown on a silicon wafer, and there came the microprocessor and computers of all kinds.

4. Telegraph - The early days of railways were hazardous because there was no time standard. Time was kept by the conductor's watch and hopefully, neighboring conductors kept their watches synchronized with each other. It was too expensive and waste of material to build a double set of tracks over the long hauls. Railways had a great need to run their trains both diections over the same track and they had an even greater need to keep trains from colliding with each other. The answer was the telegraph. Depot clocks could be synchronized using the telegraph and then the conductors could adjust their watches to match the station's clocks. Railroads were an early user of the telegraph and that is why you see telegraph poles along side tracks in early photographs. Once a telegraph line was established, it could send messages as a side business.

5. Telephone - The telephone was an outgrowth from telegraphy and had far reaching useage.

6. Steam engines - The US industral revolution was kicked off with the availability of steam engines. Steam power was used to drive everything from boats to machines. The steam boat, for the first time, permitted travel upstream on major rivers. Before that, all shipping on a river was floated downstream and upstream goods had to go overland. The steam engine was followed by the internal combustion (IC) engine. IC engines for early farm use were modified steam engines. (Look at an early IC tractor engine and you will see its design rooted in a steam engine.)

7. IC engines - The steam engine was an unweidly affair and not well suited for small fields. Boiler explosions were a hazard. The IC engine was developed alongside steam power and soon took over.

Before the IC engine and automobiles, large cities like New York had a big problem with its daily load of manure and urine from draft animals. Their streets were fillled with it.

8. Antibiotics and formal methods of drug development.

9. Immuzation against diseases.

my 2 best friends.. the computer and tv....thru both, have visited places and seen movies i'd never get to see, and world of friends...

A line in an old book made me realize how dramatically human lives have changed, and how recently. The book is "Down The Common", set in an English village. Life went on just like this in many countries for centuries until quite recently.

It's an isolated, agrarian, communal life. Few people ever go farther than they can walk in half a day. No one is literate -- including the village priest, who has rote-learned his duties. The only 'outsiders' the villagers see are the annual salt traders. (Disaster strikes one year when the traders fail to appear.)

It is a life of constant toil to stay alive. The least wound or illness often results in death. Many children die for every one who survives. Most people live only long enough to reproduce and raise some of their children.

The story is told by a wife and mother. Early in the story she is happy to be adding some meat to the stew in her cooking pot. The church bell signals FIRE, and she must dump the stew on the ground and carry the pot to a fire line -- or face shunning for failing to help. She has no other container that would let her save the meal.

The part that struck me concerns this woman's thoughts on a rare communal holiday. She is astounded to realize she is *enjoying* the moment. She takes stock: She is warm, dry, not hungry or thirsty. She is not pregnant. Her breasts are not leaking. She is not bleeding.

How our expectations for our lives have risen!

My best invention is the Oreck Steam Mop. My kitchen floor is not yellow any more from using detergent. How easy it is to clean my floors. No soap, no bucket no scrubby, just good old steam.

My dad always claimed the best invention was the electric blanket.

Electric blanket does beat a hot brick and a warming pan between the sheets just before you go to bed! LOL

Indoor plumbing is great. The flush toilet is good, but having pure, clean water ready at a tap is more important.

Post-it Notes!

Books!

Eyeglasses! (can you imagine what life was like when you could barely see where you were going?)

Wow, which ONE? Can't name one. Looking at the big picture transportation. People who WALKED in the past now ride and it opened up the world. My dad talked about how long it would take to go 20 miles to one of the "big" towns. People often took oxcarts. Horses were too important for the fields. Problem is people could walk faster than the oxen so most men would walk, the carts came when the women were with them. Now people complain if they hit a stop light on that trip. Trying to catch a train and hop on for a ride to the bigger cities too.

Weather "forecasting". We all joke about it but the forecasting and weather knowledge we've gained over the year saves lives. Speaking of saving lives the health care which is the butt of jokes too but still, think of the newborns who survive today who didn't stand a chance just 50 years ago.

Food. There too a big controversy but we do feed the world in many ways. Before you grew what you ate.

Heating/cooling. In the old days if you didn't lay up enough wood, you better have a big buddy to cuddle up with. If you got sick or injured and couldn't lay up wood, pick out a box, 'cause you probably wouldn't make it through the winter in a lot of areas.

Even water. One of the basic needs. Can get it in a bottle, again controversial, but in past times you'd better be near a clean river or lake and/or know where and how to dig a well, or melt snow in the fireplace and such or go thirsty.

On and on. There's so many things. Computers, TVs, etc, are trinkets by comparison AFAIC.

Definetly the computer, and the automobile.

By far, electricity.