I suppose that for younger people today, the internet must be much like the telephone is for me. It has always been there and it's not something one gives a great deal of thought to.
For myself and those in my age group however it would likely have to be the most groundbreaking achievement in comunications that we are likely to witness in out lifetimes.
We now have the ability to instantly retrieve information at will from almost anywhere and at any time.
And not only can we retrieve information, we can share it with others around the globe at the mere touch of a button.
This is something that was unheard of even to my own father.
Although the internet was in existence at the time of his death it was very much in its infancy, and any mention of it would have been met with little more than a perplexed gaze.
I can access the net through a wireless hand held device as I am doing right at this very moment to comunicate with a distant computer on which these words will be stored.
I can find out the price of gas at one of many gas stations in the area. Comunicate with friends, or even order my dinner should I wish to do so.
All this would have been seen as something straight out of a science fiction novel when I was a young man.
The power of the Internet was something that was demonstrated to me back in the 90's.
You see, I have always had an interest in genealogy and used to spend many hours tracking down information on Usenet which I'm not sure even exists anymore, but I digress.
The newsgroups as they were called were simple message boards where one could ask or answer questions of the other users.
For one such as myself who no longer resides in the country of his birth this made the genealogy newsgroups a valuable tool.
I was about to find out just how valuable.
You see, I was not born in a hospital as is the norm theses days, but instead I came into this world in a room on the second floor of The Vulcan Arms Pub in Stoke on Trent England.
This is one of the facts of my life that I have always had a sort of amusing pride in and on that day back in the 90s I decided to try to find out if the old pub was still standing.
I posted my information request and to my amazement got a response the very next day from a gentleman who knew of the place.
As it turns out, his wife also had a family history related to the old pub and much to my chagrin he told me that only the front facade of the building remained.
He did however claim to be in possession of a floor plan and a very old photograph of the place which he would be happy send to me by email should I wish them.
To be perfectly honest I thought that we must have been talking about two different places, I mean what are the odds?
Just the same, I gave him my email address and within a day or two of our initial contact I received an email from him complete with the attached photograph and floor plan.
I must have sat staring at that old picture for, well I don't know how long but I just couldn't tear my eyes away from it.
Is that the place of my birth? Could it possibly be the same pub?
I stared and stared mulling it over in my mind.
Looking at the gable on the front of the ancient looking building I could clearly see the words "VULCAN ARMS" and so it was time for the acid test, I would take it to show to my mother.
I had not mentioned receiving the picture or indeed any of my conversation about the pub to my mother thinking it better not for her to have any preconceived notions about what I would eventually show her.
That old printer seemed to take forever to reproduce the picture in as high a resolution as it was possible but eventually it was printed and dry.
I took the enlarged picture to my mother folded in half and without saying a word, simply unfolded it before her eyes.
If I had three wishes I don't think it would be a waste to use one of them to conjure up a picture of her shocked snd excited face that afternoon.
She did not ask me any questions, she did not hesitate even for a moment. She immediately pointed to a window on the upper floor and exclaimed "You were born in that room right there!"
And that's the day I fell in love with the power of the internet.
