Monday, August 15, 2005
Superhighway
At the risk of coming across as one who just tumbled off the proverbial turnip truck, I have something to share along the lines of "gosh, ain't it incredible the information at our fingertips today!"
I was talking to my Mom yesterday and marveling at the fact that Ella -- my daughter -- is about to start kindergarten. She said, "You probably remember kindergarten." I have vague recollections, but what struck me was remembering how I used to walk or ride my bike to elementary school at the age of 6 or 7. In my memory, it's a long ways...my Mom swore it was only half a mile or so.
How far was it, actually, I wondered? Voila -- http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/, a very cool tool for measuring walking distance. Some guy hacked the google maps feature and now I know that it was about three-quarters of a mile from my childhood home on Dean Road in Wayland, Mass., to Loker Elementary School.
(As big a change as the info we can all tap into is how society has changed -- I would never let my child, at 6 years old, walk that far to elementary school or anywhere pretty much. You just can't be that trusting anymore. I suppose child abductions and stuff like that happened back in 1975-76 too [I have cloudy memories of my sister and I encountering an ill-intentioned person -- man? boy? -- behind our school, but the specifics slip through my mental fingertips...am I imagining it?], but you just weren't as aware of it as a parent. Was life simpler/nicer, or were we more trusting, or both?)
Techno nerd part two: we finished watching "The Aviator" this past weekend (finally!), and it sparked my curiousity in Howard Hughes. I only knew bits and pieces...and voila: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes. This info source blows the doors off the World Book, although I fondly recall many hours spent with that "reference book." One summer at my Dad's, with many long hours during the day when his wife was engrossed in soap operas (she carried a small TV in the car in 1977 so she didn't miss anything while out doing errands) and I don't know where he was, I would copy sports lists out of the encyclopedia: Heisman winners, World Series champs, Super Bowl victors, etc.
My other favorite pasttime during those visits (beyond idolizing my older step-brother John, who coincidentally attended the same private school that Howard Hughes briefly went to) was watching my Dad and his wife play cribbage at the kitchen bar/counter. Cocktails were consumed, cards were played, voices were raised. I had no idea what was going on either in the game or between thos
e two...in retrospect, it was an incredibly destructive, antagonistic relationship that cost my dad a few years of his life and more than few dollars. And I have equal parts good -- the trips, the St. Pete estate wedding, etc. -- and bad -- the drunken driving, the drunken everything -- memories.
Whew. To lighten the mood a bit, here's a cute picture!
This is Ella after her appearance in "The Burning Fields" opera as part of her 2-week performing arts camp. She was awesome as a cherry tree, I can assure you. Watch out, Broadway -- you ain't heard a performance of the classic "Firewood song" until you've heard my girl sing it.
Speaking of that show, I attended (and gave Ella those flowers), and also attending were six members of my ex-wife's family (boyfriend, parents, brother, sister-in-law, nephew). It was my first encounter since the divorce with most of them...and I was completely invisible to them. No eye contact, no acknowledgement, even as we stood 5 feet away from each other. The alternative could have been open hostility, shouting, fisticuffs...an episode of Jerry Springer right there at Oakland's First Presbyterian. So ignorance -- while feeling weird -- is fine.
Listening to: "Bill & Dave's Excellent Mix" -- a CD compilation we made for Gene before our Houston visit. It's full of great music and memories -- and worth another post all its own.
I was talking to my Mom yesterday and marveling at the fact that Ella -- my daughter -- is about to start kindergarten. She said, "You probably remember kindergarten." I have vague recollections, but what struck me was remembering how I used to walk or ride my bike to elementary school at the age of 6 or 7. In my memory, it's a long ways...my Mom swore it was only half a mile or so.
How far was it, actually, I wondered? Voila -- http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/, a very cool tool for measuring walking distance. Some guy hacked the google maps feature and now I know that it was about three-quarters of a mile from my childhood home on Dean Road in Wayland, Mass., to Loker Elementary School.
(As big a change as the info we can all tap into is how society has changed -- I would never let my child, at 6 years old, walk that far to elementary school or anywhere pretty much. You just can't be that trusting anymore. I suppose child abductions and stuff like that happened back in 1975-76 too [I have cloudy memories of my sister and I encountering an ill-intentioned person -- man? boy? -- behind our school, but the specifics slip through my mental fingertips...am I imagining it?], but you just weren't as aware of it as a parent. Was life simpler/nicer, or were we more trusting, or both?)
Techno nerd part two: we finished watching "The Aviator" this past weekend (finally!), and it sparked my curiousity in Howard Hughes. I only knew bits and pieces...and voila: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes. This info source blows the doors off the World Book, although I fondly recall many hours spent with that "reference book." One summer at my Dad's, with many long hours during the day when his wife was engrossed in soap operas (she carried a small TV in the car in 1977 so she didn't miss anything while out doing errands) and I don't know where he was, I would copy sports lists out of the encyclopedia: Heisman winners, World Series champs, Super Bowl victors, etc.
My other favorite pasttime during those visits (beyond idolizing my older step-brother John, who coincidentally attended the same private school that Howard Hughes briefly went to) was watching my Dad and his wife play cribbage at the kitchen bar/counter. Cocktails were consumed, cards were played, voices were raised. I had no idea what was going on either in the game or between thos
e two...in retrospect, it was an incredibly destructive, antagonistic relationship that cost my dad a few years of his life and more than few dollars. And I have equal parts good -- the trips, the St. Pete estate wedding, etc. -- and bad -- the drunken driving, the drunken everything -- memories.Whew. To lighten the mood a bit, here's a cute picture!
This is Ella after her appearance in "The Burning Fields" opera as part of her 2-week performing arts camp. She was awesome as a cherry tree, I can assure you. Watch out, Broadway -- you ain't heard a performance of the classic "Firewood song" until you've heard my girl sing it.
Speaking of that show, I attended (and gave Ella those flowers), and also attending were six members of my ex-wife's family (boyfriend, parents, brother, sister-in-law, nephew). It was my first encounter since the divorce with most of them...and I was completely invisible to them. No eye contact, no acknowledgement, even as we stood 5 feet away from each other. The alternative could have been open hostility, shouting, fisticuffs...an episode of Jerry Springer right there at Oakland's First Presbyterian. So ignorance -- while feeling weird -- is fine.
Listening to: "Bill & Dave's Excellent Mix" -- a CD compilation we made for Gene before our Houston visit. It's full of great music and memories -- and worth another post all its own.
// posted by Bill @ 10:02 PM 
