From the Past

Annual Credit Union Dinner...good food, long presentations about the status of said credit union.

For years, the manager of the credit union gave a mandatory report with facts and figures about how our CU was doing. He used overhead transparencies. They were professional, neatly done; sometimes he'd throw in a cartoon to keep our attention. But, you could see him change the transparency, try to get it centered just right on the overhead projector, etc., etc., etc.

Then -one year- said manager got up to give the report. The big screen appeared at the front of the room.

Instead of blah blah color on a transparency, a dark rich blue appeared on the screen. Then, !POW! headlighting bullets would appear; next words would slide onto the blue background.

I craned my neck to see the overhead projector....couldn't see it. Shane didn't seem to be fidgeting with transparencies, but WHAT WAS HE USING TO CREATE THIS INCREDIBLE PRESENTATION?

I asked the people around me at the table? How is he doing that? Look at how amazing those slides/transparencies/whatever/ are. HOW DOES HE DO THAT?

Looking back to that moment, probably in the 1990's, it seems absurd to have been so astonished at what is now commonplace. But, I remember that night, that awe, that incredulity...for I had just seen my very first

POWER POINT PRESENTATION!