Mustang Sally
Every school day, when I was eight years old, my teacher would write the date and the year on the blackboard. Such as "Today is September 23, 1962". Sitting at my desk one day I calculated that in the year 2000, I would be 46 years old. At the time, the year 2000 seemed an impossibly long time away.
Now it's rapidly fading in the rearview mirror.
I was a science fiction freak as were a lot of kids back then. With the advent of the space race and an unending supply of outer space movies, my friends and I all wanted to be astronauts.
I imagined the world in the year 2000 to be a very modern one with flying cars and sleek modernistic houses built by the same architects that built the Jetson's home.
As it turns out, I now live in a house built three years after I was born and my car only flies down Memorial Pkwy. The building my studio is in was built in 1923. The sidewalks in my neighborhood don't move and the concrete they're made of still bear the stamp of the contractor that poured them back in the 1920's. My clothes are still made of cotton and it's amazing how many pairs of 60's style Chuck Taylor's I still see.
What happened to the future? Well of course it came with all its eye candy and technological miracle widgets. But even though I love my iPod, I don't recall complaining about my $6 Arvin transistor radio with the earpiece. That earpiece allowed me to run the cord up my sleeve so I could listen to the World Series without my teacher being any the wiser. Back then, the Series was played during the day, and my clandestine radio would get me to about the 6th inning. Then I would run home to catch the last 3 to 4 innings. At night that same rudimentary piece of 9 volt technology would bring me WCOL's Top Twenty Countdown with as much Beatles, Stones, and Motown as I could absorb. A fresh 9 volt and no bad weather, and life was good.
Notes in class were passed in folded origami style notebook paper, the evidence not as easily or conveniently discarded as a text message. No text message will ever be as great as a scented piece of lined notebook paper from your girlfriend, although sexting would unfortunately have been a big hit in any generation..... it's just not as mysterious or romantic, or sociologically as troubling.
So what happened to the future? It comes and goes like a mobius strip. It just depends on where you're standing and how aware of the moment you are at any given time.
All this brings me to this car lot in Chicago that caught my eye about two years ago. It looked much like hundreds of others I saw in the 50's and 60's. It was timeless. Even the cars in the photo have an ambiguous look for some reason. Anyway time stopped and went backward here for a moment and I captured my Twilight Zone moment with my Panasonic Lumix point and shoot digital.
Now it's rapidly fading in the rearview mirror.
I was a science fiction freak as were a lot of kids back then. With the advent of the space race and an unending supply of outer space movies, my friends and I all wanted to be astronauts.
I imagined the world in the year 2000 to be a very modern one with flying cars and sleek modernistic houses built by the same architects that built the Jetson's home.
As it turns out, I now live in a house built three years after I was born and my car only flies down Memorial Pkwy. The building my studio is in was built in 1923. The sidewalks in my neighborhood don't move and the concrete they're made of still bear the stamp of the contractor that poured them back in the 1920's. My clothes are still made of cotton and it's amazing how many pairs of 60's style Chuck Taylor's I still see.
What happened to the future? Well of course it came with all its eye candy and technological miracle widgets. But even though I love my iPod, I don't recall complaining about my $6 Arvin transistor radio with the earpiece. That earpiece allowed me to run the cord up my sleeve so I could listen to the World Series without my teacher being any the wiser. Back then, the Series was played during the day, and my clandestine radio would get me to about the 6th inning. Then I would run home to catch the last 3 to 4 innings. At night that same rudimentary piece of 9 volt technology would bring me WCOL's Top Twenty Countdown with as much Beatles, Stones, and Motown as I could absorb. A fresh 9 volt and no bad weather, and life was good.
Notes in class were passed in folded origami style notebook paper, the evidence not as easily or conveniently discarded as a text message. No text message will ever be as great as a scented piece of lined notebook paper from your girlfriend, although sexting would unfortunately have been a big hit in any generation..... it's just not as mysterious or romantic, or sociologically as troubling.
So what happened to the future? It comes and goes like a mobius strip. It just depends on where you're standing and how aware of the moment you are at any given time.
All this brings me to this car lot in Chicago that caught my eye about two years ago. It looked much like hundreds of others I saw in the 50's and 60's. It was timeless. Even the cars in the photo have an ambiguous look for some reason. Anyway time stopped and went backward here for a moment and I captured my Twilight Zone moment with my Panasonic Lumix point and shoot digital.
Share
By Mencken - Saturday, October 24, 2009
10 Comments:
I wonder what kind of rigorous inspection a car must go through to get "ok'd?"
Great post.
I think radical conservatives happened to the future.
and not equipped with either delete or mute buttons.
Really great post Mencken. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for your comment.
Menk,
Reading this piece gave me a flashback (albeit only to 2007 when we had a bunch of great philosophical threads). Glad to see you're still writing. Hope all is well.
A few years back I think I reviewed Where's My Jetpack - a book about space elevators, underwater hotels, smell-o-vision and robot pets. The amazing thing though isn't how far off the sci-fi of the 60s or 70s was, but how far off the sci-fi of the 90s was!
I just went on a Cyberpunk kick - renting all sorts of flicks like The Lawnmower Man. What ever happened to "cyberspace" and virtual reality?
To think that last year held more headlines about pirates than hackers!
Anyhow, nice piece.
Thanks Robert, and I miss those threads too.
Mencken, thanks for the trip down memory lane- I really needed it today.
& you did Wilson Pickett proud with that car lot photo - straight out of the "Blues Brothers" Movie. Did you see Ray Charles' music shop nearby?
Yes- notes from your girlfriend and World Series games in the daytime for all to enjoy instead of todays "prime Time" TV takeover.
Did you ever lose your letter sweater when your sqeeze wouldnt give it back after graduation?
I remember the first time I heard the Beatles on my 6 transistor GE radio that my dad gave me.
How about being petrified by a space invader movie at the local theater?
Parking w/the squeeze at the drive in theater & Blatz beer on a hot July night....
God- the kids today are so jaded
Hey ::::one item that a Nun accurately predicted when I was in the third grade was " Someday anyone of any race or religion will be elected President"
Yes, growing up during the "Space Race" was a literal blast----I too thought we would be flying rocket ships by the 2000s....but what the hey, I just tuned up my '89 Ford Ranger
I can tell you are aging like fine wine,
& Robert, I miss all those intense political threads too
cya
God Petey... Blatz beer?
My dad got me the transistor radio after I complained the crystal radio set I built would only get the country music station.
Crystal radio sets.... it doesn't get any more basic than that.
PBR and Strohs in an 8 pack bottles were favorites too---Genesee - will rust your pipes---Duke and Carling Black Label....of course the all time cheapy was Iroquis Beer from Erie, PA
We had livers of Galvanized STEEL
A crystal radio was "magic"
Post a Comment
<< Home