Being Software
As navigator and colleague in those autumnal sorties, I should add to the aforegoing a key technological discovery on our part that enabled the clean getaways whence we could safely turn and watch our flamework: we somehow discovered that we could delay ignition for crucial extra seconds by wetting the matchhead with saliva. I can still taste the excitement of those matches. It is through such research and development, and intrepid application of the results, that society advances into a future where the streets are still full of leaves but the kids are all indoors and I haven't seen a spool in decades.
Yeah, we kids were forced by circumstances to create our own means of having fun in the daytime and the nighttime, entertainment not yet being handed on a liquid crystal platter to everyone within mindshot… Minds weren’t yet plugins; we were our own software.
But it seems to me, Mick, that it was just you and I who did (or instigated) these things; I don’t recall ever ‘walking into’ any such events already under way; maybe you do? The Case of the Flaming Thruway comes to mind as a possible exception, though I’m not sure the statute of limitation has expired on that one, so I'll say no more...
We were mad kid scientists and the world was our laboratory. We climbed, we dug, we exploded, we explored, we built, we created, we mixed, we tore down, we carved, we sped, we sharpened, we dove, we plunged, we tested everything. And everything met our requirements. We certified the world as a worthy app.
Yeah, we kids were forced by circumstances to create our own means of having fun in the daytime and the nighttime, entertainment not yet being handed on a liquid crystal platter to everyone within mindshot… Minds weren’t yet plugins; we were our own software.
But it seems to me, Mick, that it was just you and I who did (or instigated) these things; I don’t recall ever ‘walking into’ any such events already under way; maybe you do? The Case of the Flaming Thruway comes to mind as a possible exception, though I’m not sure the statute of limitation has expired on that one, so I'll say no more...
We were mad kid scientists and the world was our laboratory. We climbed, we dug, we exploded, we explored, we built, we created, we mixed, we tore down, we carved, we sped, we sharpened, we dove, we plunged, we tested everything. And everything met our requirements. We certified the world as a worthy app.
posted by Robert Brady | 11:50 PM
3 Comments:
You were not alone. In a different part of the world, South Dakota, my friends and I were working hard to follow in our brothers shoes. We all had chemistry sets and great working relationships with the local druggist. We were experimenting with gunpowder and then building bombs in the basement. We discovered the valu of Potassium Nitrate at age 12. When ligtning hit our house it was determined that it was probably me and my friends fault, what with all of our expermenting and such. I have great stories such as what happens when you melt .22 shells in your moms frying pan to melt the lead so that you can recover it for some other experiment. Keep up the good work - Ted
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hanks, Ted; can't wait for your story about melting the 22 shells (and the experiment that was to follow; I suspect that the research never made it that far?) Perhaps not surprisingly - since great childhood experimental discoveries seem to come in clusters - we have some tales coming in a similar regard...
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