Monday, January 01, 2007

Where the hell is my flying car?

First off a little disclaimer: I have NO idea where I got the title of this post from, I am however, fairly certain that it did NOT come from me. If I had to guess I would say it was from one of a million comedy sketches I have seen various comedians do. It may have been from one of the many blogs I have read, or a newspaper article, who knows? Anyways, that line or that thought is NOT a Briliant Donkey original, I just have no idea who to credit for it.

That said where the hell IS my flying car damnit? I couldn't help wonder this yesterday as I sat in my daily bumper to bumper traffic Jam.

It is 2007 now. Exactly 12 hours into 2007 in fact. Sorry for it taking me this long to post something, but up until now I have been stuck in my room writing "I will not accidentally write 2006" on the chalk board over and over again. Will it work? I doubt it, writing "I will not make sarcastic comments in class or to the teacher" over and over again never seemed to work. Then again, who knows?

They say time flies, and whoa, the older I get the more I realize that it is true. I remember an old song by Prince or the 'artist formerly known as prince' titled(I think and am too lazy to google and confirm) "party like it's 1999". I remember this song, not so much because it was a great song or anything, even though it was pretty okay. I mainly remember it, because when it was out, it(1999) seemed soooooo far away,

Like High School feels so far away to a grade schooler.
Like College seems so far away to a High school student.
Like 'getting out in the real world' seems so far away to all of the above.

They are all things that you know are coming, and yet never seem to get here.

At the time, 1999 seemed so far away that you thought surely by then we would be flying around with rocket packs on our backs. Surely, we would be flying around George Jetson style in our cars to get to work.

Technology is something that has always interested and amazed me to a degree. I am not old enough to remember the invention of the light bulb, or television or plenty of other things like that. As a bartender for years, I often found myself thinking (while carding someone who DID turn out to be 21) that here was someone to whom :

The idea of having to get up to turn on the television, or get up to change the channel everytime
was a completely foreign Idea and yet I am old enough to remember doing just that.

I still remember older rotary dial telephones, and can clearly hear the little 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' sounds they made while going clockwise, and the 'click, click, click' sounds as the dial returned to its normal position.

I remember the early versions of Vcr's. How they were big as hell, weighed 8 tons, and required a degree in physics to figure out how to work them.

I remember at a very young age seeing, using, and getting my first tape recorder and player. It was about the size of a hard cover book, It is hard to beleive just how 'advanced' this stuff seemed at the time, but show one of them to that young lady I just served a drink to and watch how quickly she hands me a bottle of bryl cream, preparation H, and a cane.

I imagine this has been the same all throughout time. I envision 'Gog the caveman' watching his son, 'gogger' use that fancy new 'flint and steel' thing to light the night's dinner fire. I wonder if he looked down at his two sticks and shook his head at the 'new technology' in awe or disappointment. I wonder if gogger looked at dad with his two sticks and thought ' you old coot this is how we do things now' and laughed at the 'old school' ways.

I wonder then if his thoughts changed when HIS son broke out matches years later?

or years after that when the lighter made ITS first appearence.


I gotta get to work but I think I will add more to this(and possibly even spell check this), later.

BD

7 comments:

mist1 said...

My grandpa had a remote control for his VCR. It had a cord. That makes me laugh now.

Anonymous said...

Loved the Gog and Gogger story. That was a very humorous analogy.

Anonymous said...

Hear, hear on the technology thing. I predict as today's young adults get more and more tied to technology, psychiatrists will have their hands full with patients looking to "disconnect." Can you imagine the headache physically losing one's PDA would be if one had no backup? Please see:

http://sardonicynic.blogspot.com
/2006/04/free-blackberry.html

ps: sorry about snatching the ID. I found out after acquiring it that some dude was using it even before me!

Michael Thomas said...

Hell, a lot of these younger folks don't even know what it was like to have to cook popcorn in a pot, or rewind the little tape thingy back into your favorite cassette after your player ate it.

Susan said...

One of my younger cousins got a hide and seek carebear for Christmas. I laughed a little, telling her how I had carebears when I was her age. She looked at me in a state of awe. When I tried telling her they didn't talk back then she looked at me like I had three heads. "How did you play with them then?" I worry imagination will disappear with technology...

Wavemancali said...

That 70's show had an episode where Red say's,"Where's my jetpack? They promised us jetpacks." Maybe this is part of the forgotten inspiration?

Song remakes are one of my favorite ways to freak out the young. Their favorite band comes out with this "Great New Song" and they are utterly amazed when old fogies can somehow sing along word for word.

briliantdonkey said...

Mist: I tend to fear comments that start off with the words "my grandpa had", but that one turned out to not be so bad.

Bice: thanks, I am pretty sure that one came from the Gary Larson "Far side" influenced side of my brain,,,,assuming of course I have one.

Sarc: As I said over there, that is quite interesting the dependence we have on technology once we get it. Let a computer go down in a restaurant,bank, or wally world and all hell breaks loose.

Michael: I remember those popcorn aluminum pan thingies you had to shake back and forth on the stove. To think that was advanced then.

Susan: that comment made me think of the little talking bear that was 'the toy' in the middle to late 80's. I can't remember what it was called now though.

Waveman: welcome to the site. Always good to see a new face. That could be where I got that reference from, but since I have only seen a few episodes of that show I doubt it. The song thing is a trip now that you mention it. I seem to remember giving my mom or older siblings that look when they would start singing MY songs.

BD