Lex Anteinternet: A return to the pocket watch

Friday, September 13, 2013

A return to the pocket watch

My son related to me today that in school there'd been a discussion on wristwatches. Kids, the class observed, don't wear watches anymore.

"What do they do?" I asked.

"They check their phones."

"A return to the pocket watch then" I replied.

It is really. Or at least partially. But people omitting wristwatches to check the time on their phones, which they carry all the time, are checking the time on something that's bigger than old pocket watches were.

Oh, sure, phones do more. . . but so did pocket watches. They both marked status for one thing. And they both could carry photos, although a pocket watch carried only one, if one. Both are, or were, treasured items, with pocket watches being more treasured in their day than Iphones are today. And both spawned accessories for carry.

They aren't identical, of course. But things change to some degree less than we suppose.

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

Thank you for stopping in!