I sometimes seriously find myself thinking that I was absolutely meant to live at this moment in time. Had I lived at any other moment in time, I would not have fit in. If I had lived in, say, the 1950s, I honestly don't think I would have even made it beyond high school.
I mean, from what I understand about the 1950s, everyone was supposed to be interested in cars, or so the movie "Grease" has conditioned me to believe. I don't know anything about cars. Nothing. Never been interested in them beyond being a mode of transportation.
If my car breaks down, I'll pop the hood, look at the engine for awhile, maybe check the battery connections, check the oil if I'm REALLY ambitious, and then I'll start to cry. That simply wouldn't have gone over well in the 1950s.
If I were growing up in the 1950s, and I was talking with Danny Zuko, he'd probably be all, like, "Check out my car, man. It's automatic! Systematic! Hyyydromatic!" And I'd probably be all, like, "It's okay, I guess, but what would be really cool is if there were some way for a television to project some sort of game that you can remotely control with some sort of. . . of. . . remote control." And then Danny would just kind of look at me like I was a total moron, and I'd have no chance whatsoever at scoring with Betty Rizzo. And that would pretty much be the end of my social life forever.
Similarly, I don't think I could have grown up in the 1960s, either. Because, my understanding of the 1960s is that it was about sex, drugs and rock & roll which, on its face, sounds pretty cool, but I tend to think it would have gotten old pretty fast. I would have woken up one morning on the shag carpet floor of some living room somewhere, surrounded by hippy friends all asking each other "So, what do you want to do today?"
"Sex?"
"I was thinking drugs, man."
"Isn't it time for some rock & roll?"
At which point I'd interject with something along the lines of: "You know, all that sounds interesting and all, particularly the sex which, I'll be honest, I've really enjoyed. But, and I'm just thinking out loud here, wouldn't it be really neat if there was a type of interface we could all sit in front of and have access to all manner of information, entertainment and instantaneous worldwide news and opinion, all while being able to interact and communicate with one another, as well as people around the globe in a kind of worldwide web?"
And then all my hippie friends would nod and agree that my thinking was really deep, and then Sebastian would strum his guitar, Coyote would pass around some sort of recreational drug, and Starbright would usher me into her bedroom, and from there my future would basically be shot.
All of which feeds my belief that I was meant to live in the "here and now," starting in 1975, rather than the "there and earlier" of some other bygone age. Although, from what I understand, the era starting around the year 2350 is supposed to be pretty cool, too. Oh well.
Dark Knight. Heath Ledger. Batman. The Joker. Dark Knight. Heath Ledger. Batman. The Joker. Dark Knight. Heath Ledger. Batman. The Joker.
Posted by Ryan at December 2, 2005 03:23 PM | TrackBackI grew up in the 50's, had no interest in cars other than driving them, did OK anyway.
I was a young man in the 60's, did the sex, drugs and rock'roll thing. It DID grow old fast. So I moved on.
The 70's and 80's were the era of TV games and computer games, did those, got bored with them.
Now it's the internet, downloading, etc. But you know what, I'm bored again. :)
Any era has its highlights and we get tired of them all. Good thing things change fast nowadays, isn't it?
Posted by: bigdocmcd at December 5, 2005 03:32 PM
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