RUDIMENTS, pt.183
Making Cars
This one gets off on a
different footing - and it's
only because this recent
occurrence which I wish to
relate fits in so well with some
of my points. As follow: I've
been around enough now to
see lots of things - the things
that got away, things I didn't
notice as they happened, only
later, and things that have changed
so drastically, and socially, that
I can't make heads or tails from
anyhow. There's a far and full
moon shining in right now as I
write, and a big, fat dog is
soundly sleeping at my feet,
as is her nightly habit. I assume
then that God is in (His) Heaven
and all is right with the world?
-
I have retained all of my old ways.
I am a usual sourpuss about many
things. BUT, in all this I have kept
up, somehow, with what goes on :
the daily political machinations, the
shifting ship of the way things are.
My fair wife, on the other hand, has
managed a distinct distancing toward
some of these things, which sets her
apart. I do think that if she woke up
in the middle of the night and came
down to use the phone, she'd still,
in a deep stupor, be looking for
the rotary dial. 'Nuff said. About
a week or so ago, just before the
Christmas and New Year's week,
we were visiting a relative. I was
to be leaving with the lady of that
house, to pick up a piece of
furniture in my pick-up truck, for
her, and delivering somewhere else.
My goodly wife was staying with
the man of that house - which man,
over the last two years, in his mid-70's,
has developed evidences of dementia,
and the other afflictions of the aged.
In order not to leave him alone, for
whatever dangers could arise, she was
going to keep him company - while
he babbled, went on, imagined, etc.
She'd been told beforehand what things
he may say, do, talk about, mistake, etc.
It was all good. Anyway (and this is
where it gets very funny), her retelling
of all this - still rather baffling to her -
has it that, after a hour or so he began
talking of the 'old' days, his childhood
memories, things he liked, etc. Occasionally.
she said, he'd act as if there was someone
else there, with them. At some point
the talk turned to old music and old
tunes that he liked. He mentioned how
much he used to like listening to Jimmy
Durante. An old-time singer. He asked
if she liked Jimmy Durante. He said 'Do
you want to hear some Jimmy Durante,
let's all have some Jimmy Durante.' At
which point, she says, he got up, went
to the wall, leaned his head in towards
that wall, and started sounding out -
'Alexa, play me some Jimmy Durante,
Alexa, I want to hear Jimmy Durante.'
A few seconds passed, and lo and behold
the sound of Jimmy Durante started
playing, a entire series of songs. She
was astounded, and truly thought she'd
had a seat in a mysterious madhouse
with a strange and powerful man who
could control the walls to play music
of his selection, through the weird and
imagined interface of 'Alexa.'
-
Poor girl. I was rolling with laughter,
mostly at the true sincerity in the
belief of what she'd witnessed, as
if some miraculous, weird occurrence.
I left it to others to tell her that 'Alexa'
was a pay-service app in that house,
with voice-control for radios, TV's, etc.
by means of a speaker and connection
at the wall, into which wall she'd thought
a madman had been speaking. Far be it
from me to break this wonderful spell.
-
My point is, I guess, how in the world
would we have prepared for this, in
1960 or 1965? What sort of dreamworld
description would we have to had to see,
in some lame Life or Time magazine in
order to be prepared for, and envision.
old men talking at walls and creating
sound thereby? I think, perhaps, that
1957 Sputnik which was buzzing over
our houses that night, and for which
nearly the entire block's worth of
parents, and some kids, had come out
to crane their necks and heads skyward
to watch this moving, blinking, silent,
and distant Soviet light, was really
calling to us, in some strange way,
saying the Russian equivalent of :
'You ain't seen nothin' yet.'
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