June 22, 2008
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…as I watched a news broadcast last week, an enthusiastic reporter introduced some of the hottest technology to recently hit the market. She described items that I am certain I will never purchase, being so tech-challenged that I can barely operate our new television. But I watched the segment anyway, to see what wonderful gadgets I’ll never use.
One of the featured items the reporter raved about was a pair of athletic shoes with a GPS system embedded in the sole of the shoe.
“Hmmm,” I thought, “so, you take off your shoe to see where you’re globally positioned?”
The reporter quickly went on to explain that the idea was to have the ability to keep track of the wearer of the athletic shoes. She mentioned teenagers and senior citizens as possible culprits who might need tracking, and I was immediately struck with the absurdity of that idea. Is there a teenager anywhere who would not know to simply take off the shoes if he or she did not want his or her whereabouts tracked? Seniors, I’m not so sure about. Maybe that’s the target market.
GPS systems have spawned a whole new industry, now that they are being marketed to ordinary people instead of just the military and people into espionage. Catchy advertising makes it seem like such fun to be able to find one’s way around using coordinates, satellites and such concepts as triangulation. New vehicles come equipped with the system built right into them, and the pocket-sized ones are perfect to carry around, along with all your other everyday tech necessities, such as cell phone, notebook-sized computer and XM radio. But who really needs these things? It begs the question: have we forgotten how to read a map?
Maps are now being relegated to the attic, along with those boxes of antiquated calculators, typewriters, tape recorders, records and corded telephones. But once they were a valuable tool, especially when it came time for that wonderful event, the family vacation.
Remember how much fun it was, driving down the highway at 65 miles per hour, with all the windows rolled down? The July temperature soared to at least 100 degrees, and when you tried to slide across the vinyl upholstery, you found your bare, sweaty legs were stuck fast. Dad and Mom always got the front, and however many kids there were sat in the back, fighting over what percentage of the seat belonged to whom.
As a new city, never before visited, loomed in the distance, Mom would sit up a little straighter, turn off the scratchy radio, and caution the kids to keep quiet. It was time for her to do her job. Her mission: to steer Dad through the unfamiliar territory. She would unfold the deeply creased 4 ft x 4 ft square of paper, attempting to keep it from blowing away, and peer anxiously through her rhinestone-speckled sunglasses at the tiny print.
As highway interchanges whizzed by, Mom would press her foot deeper into the passenger floor, trying to slow Dad down. But now we were in a race. As lanes multiplied and cars flew by, he became determined to keep pace. Never mind that the county roads back home had done nothing to prepare us for the reality of a freeway. Never mind that our rural town didn’t even have one single stoplight, much less exit ramps. We were going with the flow.
Along we flew, Mom barking out turns and directions, Dad zigzagging through traffic. Huge billboards attempted to lure us to wonderful and exotic attractions, but we were not deterred. Pity the poor child who needed a bathroom break, because stopping was not an option. On we pressed, until finally the city receded in the rear view mirror and traffic thinned. Dad visibly relaxed, and Mom breathed a big sigh of relief, while beginning the seemingly impossible task of folding her map back into its original shape.
Now the kids could finally ask the question that was uppermost in their minds during the entire vacation: “Can we p-l-e-a-s-e stop at a motel with a swimming pool? Please!” Like stoplights, that was another thing that we didn’t have any of, back home. It was the sole purpose of going on vacation, as far as we were concerned.
Imagine if Mom had possessed a GPS back then; she could simply have punched in “nearest motel with swimming pool,” and we’d have been able to drive right to one. Those gadgets would have been worth something, after all!
Comments (6)
Sounds familiar – especially my brother and I making sure the other did not cross the invisable line in the center of the back seat!
Great memories of those vacations! And we don’t have to go back so far – just to vacations with our own kids – now people have video players and DVD’s playing – our kids sat in the back with a basket of toys and with a tape player listening to their favorite Wee Sing Bible Songs or Psalty tapes. Anyone remember those? Or if we were really technologically on the ball they had a book and a tape and they would turn the page when the little bell rang!
Oh, those windows-down, backseat days of family vacations! I remember our trip to New York City, with Daddy driving our 1958 stick-shift Ford Fairlane and Mom navigating with the four-foot map. Of course we couldn’t find a place to park, so poor Daddy got lots of city-driving experience. We finally saw a car pull out of a spot, but there was a “no parking” sign next to it. Daddy stopped and told Mom to get out and ask a guy standing there if we could park there. “Lady,” the man barked at Mom, “I don’t give a _____ if you park there or not.” Poor Mom was so shocked she nearly fell off the curb. We opted to keep driving!
My goodness, what memories we had from pre airconditioner days! The best I’ve heard is my husband’s family trip to Mt. Rushmore. Grandma and Dad had the front seat of the stationwagon. The next seat had Mom, and two maiden aunts. In the back were the three kids, breathing fumes all day long. They arrived at the motel all hot and sweaty and ready for a swim…Mom forgot their bathing suits! We didn’t have Wal-Mart or K-Mart in every town, so the kids went without. The next day they made it to Mt. Rushmore, got out and looked, got back in the car and drove back home! I can only imagine how glad they all were to get home!
I suppose a GPS in my shoes might come in handy when the day comes that I really can’t find my car in a parking lot!
Oh what wonderful (?) memories! We had plenty of those summer vacations driving all over the country in the unremitting heat. Every summer saw us heading from Indiana to Tennessee or the Ozarks or to California to visit family. We might stop along the way at tourist attractions, but the ultimate destination was always a relative’s home. My mother worn a fine hairnet with little beads on it to keep her hair from blowing all over the place. When we crossed the desert, my parents tried to do it at night when it was still hot but bearably so, and they hung a canvas bag full of water for emergencies over the front bumper. I always had to ride in the back seat. When my father drove, mother rode in the front seat, and when she drove my brother usually rode in the front because by then, mother wanted the two of us children separated by at least the back of the seat.
Awe, those sweet memories of kids being packed in a car, windows down, doing the ABC’s on the billboards! What fun. Mom and dad took us 7 children in a brand spanking new Ford Maverick all the way from Michigan to Sarasota Fla in the fall of 1972! We were packed in like saridines. We all slept the same way – when one shifted, we all shifted. Mom brought back a bushel of oranges and a bushel of grapefruits that year – poured them into the trunk & they went into all the little nooks and crannies between the bags and luggage we had! But what sweet memories it made for our family! Wouldn’t THINK of doing that today, but it was something we will NEVER EVER forget!