OK, so this is a re-enactment -- I asked her to point to the mysterious lever again.
Ever since they were babies, the Twins have loved my beat-up 2000 Ford Ranger. When they were smaller, they’d get excited every time they saw a pickup truck, of any color, thinking it was mine.
But neither ever had a chance to ride in it, until today. And that only happened because of an unforeseen circumstances.
I was running out of the office thinking to go to Starbucks and get something to fortify me through rehearsal tonight. But as I got into the truck, I had another thought: I called my wife to find out where she and the kids — the Twins, both 4 and a half, my son’s daughter who is two years younger, and her baby brother — were. They were at the park. So I went there instead.
When I got there, they were getting ready to leave, but had a problem. My wife asked which vehicle I had brought, and was disappointed to learn it was the truck — which has no back seat, and no child seat in any case, which is why the little ones have never ridden in it.
But one of the Twins had developed a bad blister and couldn’t put on her shoes to walk back to the house. So I strapped her into the seat and drove her back the four residential blocks or so very, very slowly, making sure not to get anywhere near any other vehicle. At one point, she cried, “Your truck goes really fast!” I looked at the speedometer. I was doing 15 mph. I slowed down anyway.
Safely back in the driveway, I reached across my passenger to roll down her window, to keep the cab cool while we waited for those who were walking back. Then, as I was rolling down mine to get some cross-ventilation, she said, “That’s a funny thing.”
“What?” I asked.
“That thing,” she said, pointing to the manual window crank.
She had never seen one before.
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And to think not all that long ago she would have ridden home safely standing up in the front seat with you going 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
You mean, when I was her age.
Yes, but you see, she is far more precious to me than I was (to me) at that age.
On one of my picture vocabulary tests that I give to 4 year olds regularly there is a picture of a calculator that they are supposed to name. They almost all think it is a cell phone.
In 1970, we drove from Massachusetts to California and back with three kids bouncing around in the backseat.
Now, if you don’t encase your kids in bubble wrap, you’re an unfit parent.
A recent high school grad art student did not know how to use a fountain pen…..
Last year a student asked me what the Save icon was supposed to be. She’d never seen a 3.5 floppy.
Back in the early 1960’s my 8 year old brother rode from the Republic of Kalifornia to a midwestern state in the back of a pickup with a piano. My grandparents and their dog rode in the cab. He also used to ride in the car laying on the rear window package shelf. Today every adult in the vehicle would be hauled to jail for allowing such atrocities.
It’s amazing we survived without car seats, bike helmets, little plastic things you put in electrical outlets and the list goes on and on. And what’s the deal with every kid today being allergic to peanuts?
I recall hearing a clip of a 911 call in which the woman’s car lost power for some reason, it was sweltering hot, and since there was no power she couldn’t roll down the window or unlock the car door. So she called 911. And they explained to pull up the little knob on the door. While the clip may have been a joke, I think it speaks volumes about people are coming high tech savvy but losing important things like reasoned thought. And spatial awareness as they walk around texting – or ride around on their bikes texting and then crash into cars, people….
If I could lay hands on it, I’d show my students a 5.25″ floppy from my old original MS-DOS desktop. Since I teach history, that would fit right in.
For fun, I asked a group of twentysomethings what a carriage return is. Best answer: where the horses and carriages wait in the park for you to hire them.
Cc stands for?