" So many people live without riding the whirlwind of a revolution (technological,inustrial etc), and we have watched it from youth and will watch it to maturity."
An elderly neighbour born in 1914 lived until she was 99. She remembered the excitement of primitive aircraft flying overhead. Broadcast radio was also a new invention when she was a child. Electricity gradually replaced gas lighting in the home.
She learned to drive a car when you didn't need a licence - or at least there was no driving test. Someone's autobiography describes their father buying a car on a visit to London. The showroom mechanic took him for a short drive to teach him the principles. The man then drove home. He arrived with both running boards attached by rope - the result of several mishaps en route.