There are a lot of things that we’ve come to take for
granted. Take what’s considered a staple of modern life: air conditioning.
Central air has become so common for Americans that when I talk about how I
grew up without it I’m reminded of the “walking twelve miles to school barefoot”
stories my dad used to drag out. It isn’t fair how time makes codgers of us
all, even those of us who’ve taken a vow never to engage in finger-shaking
lectures about appreciating what you’ve got. Anyway, I come to bury my youth,
not praise it.
100 years ago, General Electric ran this ad for its hot and relatively new
gadget, the oscillating fan, in Popular
Mechanics. Reading the copy makes me realize how much the world has changed
in a century. A modern commercial for air conditioning bombards its viewers with
terms like “sub zero”, “arctic”, and the like while the GE ad talks about
bringing the breeze into your office or home. Maybe the hyperbole is a symptom
of a world where everything is branded. We no longer have the Polo Grounds, Candlestick
Park, or the Hoosier Dome and I’ve even seen rumors of a corporation buying the
rights to name newly discovered species. It makes you feel a little like the
Grinch – all the noise, noise, noise, noise!
Its days like this, when din gets so loud that it seems to
become one big featureless sound-scape of self aggrandizement that I disconnect.
I put on some old jazz and retreat to my detective’s office. I open the window
and turn on my little oscillating fan and listen the soft whirr and the sounds
of the birds outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment