Hey @sloewalker..
A very nice post you have got. 👌
The one thing which I could sense from it was the very fact that how things change from one generation to another. How our ideologies change, how our outlook towards different things changes over time. Just to bring out some sense I will present an example before all of us....
1- Rock music was a taboo in the past, it was for sinners and now it is what it is.
2- Giving equal rights to women, back in the days, was something the intellectuals used to laugh at. And see how things have changed.

The only point I was trying to make was, which I could relate to from your post where you said "A rice mill was a symbol of affluence and now its not"...
Even owning a radio in the past was a thing of huge pride for their owners but now it's completely flute. Peace