Wednesday March 8 2017  DO NOT BE LEFT BEHIND

As a child we barely had enough income to live on.  Once we moved to California my mother seemed to eke out a bit of money here and there to afford little trips to museums, fairs, gardens, and out of the way places that offered learning experiences.  I don’t remember that happening with my older sisters but they were married and out of the apartment by the time I was, 9, 11, and 12 years of age.  So it was then just me and my sister Faith who was about 7 years younger.

My mother had a friend named Merle who lived in the apartment below us.  She had a son my age named Albert.  We bonded at age six and have since been lifelong friends.  Merle owned a STATION WAGON!  I looked the model up online and recognized it as the 1957 model.  It was red and white!  When we went on excursions Merle would drive the station wagon and we kids felt like royalty all packed into the long back end behind the second row seat.  Gasoline was about twenty to thirty cents a gallon at that time.  I imagine my mom and Merle probably split the cost of gas in able to afford the excursions.

Albert had two younger siblings and with the two kids from our family we made a great troop.  We would all get in the back of the station wagon and had a grand time while our moms were in the front seat shooting the breeze.  The trips I remember best are the ones we took each year to the state fair.  We didn’t get to ride on the rides due to cost but we paid the quarter to get in and it was the best quarter I ever remember spending.  Of course when it was time to eat we all trekked back to the car, pulled down the back of the wagon door and ate our homemade fare.  So did a lot of other families.  It was what you did when you had a brood of kids to feed and not much money.

The adventure was being together.  Of course I don’t remember ever being naughty or cranky but I remember my sister being that way.  Perhaps that is selective memory.  But the things I remember most are the adventures of going through the displays and exhibits and demonstrations housed in the BIG BUILDING! 

This morning I read a newspaper article about a self-driving car, (BMW Series 7)  that is already at the Car Dealerships.  It is actually a model already available to the public that uses minimal human control. The car cost over $81,000.  The article reported the skepticism of most people and how many do not believe it will eventually be the new normal.  Reading that article catapulted my memory back to the late 1950’S when I saw the “future kitchen” in the big building at the State Fair.  It was amazing.  There was a large metal and glass box that could bake a potato in 10 to 15 minutes and it could heat up food on a plate in about 5 minutes.  Of course the demonstrations were extremely fascinating to the kid I was back then.  And even though it didn’t seem possible “EVERYONE” would someday have one in their kitchen, it still mesmerized and astonished my young brain.  I remember jumping on the bandwagon declaring and believing that it would happen!  I couldn’t wait to tell my friends, and even those I didn’t know, about the amazing thing this machine did.  Those who knew me thought it was just one more of the imaginative stories I made up.  About 17 or 18 years later Dave and I had one in our kitchen.  When I used our huge microwave oven I often thought about that day so many years before when I saw the amazing capabilities of what it could do.  By the time we owned one it was able to go far beyond the expectations of that pioneer model.

So, who is to say what kinds of cars we will be driving in the future.  For that matter, who is to say that with the way the world is going that there will even be a future?  All I know is that today I am alive and I will live in the circumstances I have.  However, I might add, I do enjoy the “modern kitchen”!

And one more thing, I still love “going through the displays and exhibits and demonstrations housed in the BIG BUILDING!”  I learn something new every time I go.  In this age of technology there is always something new to learn.  Actually, it seems that technology advances so quickly I barely hear about it before there is something even better coming along.

 

CHOOSE WHAT WORLD YOU LIVE IN

Kathleen Martens

March 8, 2017

http://www.visionsofpoetry.com

 

This world is rapidly changing

In terms of technical matters.

A new invention of today

Tomorrow could be in tatters.

 

So swiftly do things come and go

On which economy depends.

As quickly as the new is offered

Sooner the masses will spend.

 

A new model or a new App

Can hardly wait to be tried,

It’s all the rage to have the latest

So to others you can confide.

 

But my choice is to go slow,

Choose what I need and no more.

As far as knowledge I choose to seek!

So I can be aware of future’s door!

 

To keep up with all that is changing

New facts you must seek and find.

Just because you are getting older

It’s still important not to be left behind.

 

The world is advancing every day,

Be aware of what is taking place.

From politics to modern conveniences

Look facts straight in the face!

 

So many refuse to advance with change,

Of new knowledge they have little to show.

How sad it will be to wake up and find,

You live in a world you no longer know.

 

Thank You God that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Thank You that You are the grounding of my existence.

Thank You that this world is not my final home.

Thank You for preparing a mansion for me in heaven.

 

“John 14:2 King James Version

² In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

 

GOD BLESS YOU!