Summer Memories

This blog is entitled thoughts, memories and contemplations. So far I have more thoughts and contemplations than memories. So here goes a memory.

There was nothing quite like the drive-in when I was a kid. The drive-in kept you with your family, but out and amongst strangers too. Going to the drive in in your pj's was my favorite part (besides the popcorn we brought to share front seat parents, back seat kids).

Later, it was a relatively safe place to go with your teenage friends. Everyone looked out for one another and it was a confined space yet it was large enough to feel free from home and school. It was a play pen for teens if you will.

But for me, it was being outdoors on a Summer night, the stars, the breeze, the darkening sky before the movie started. All the lights at the refreshment stand and the noise there with so many people gave life and contrast to the novelty of watching a movie from your car.

It was the thrill of the new technology of it I remember. I felt I was somehow experiencing the future and I could hardly wait until more of it happened.

I still feel that way. I still am longing for a bright shining future filled with technology. I know it's there as I glimpse it in art and music and the poetry of the young. Then, of course, there is the current technology that I only dreamed of 25-30 years ago, and could never even conceive of 50 years ago. I am crazy for technology and want more all the time.

The birth pains that accompany this future are being dulled and put to sleep, I think, for a good reason. Only those who are strong enough to survive this transition will. Only those the future truly needs will survive this transition. And that is what I fear most. I fear I will not survive the transition. Or, that I will simply fall asleep again and have to wake up all over again.