living in the future

As a kid in the 70's, my family made many long road trips; two to four each year. Being an only child, I had the luxury of the whole backseat for myself. We would listen to the radio fading in and out between towns. Sometimes I would look at my dad's giant road atlas and trace my finger along the routes as we drove from California to New Mexico or Virginia to Alabama. Mostly I read, and filled up those game books with highlighters you could buy at gas stations. Which were few and far between, and we'd need to plan those stops in advance because it really sucked to have to pee on the side of the road in the desert (one word: cactus). And if we were going to be late, we'd need to track down a pay phone to let our friends or family know not to wait up for us.

At one point, my parents bought a small portable TV, and it would ride in the backseat with me. Whenever we got close enough to a big city, I would flip that clunky knob back and forth between channels, watching through static and snow for as long as we were in antenna range. But hey, I was watching TV! In the car! I felt like I was in an episode of the Jetsons.

A few weeks ago, my grandma celebrated her 85th birthday with a big party in Maryland. John and L and I made the nine hour drive after school got out one Friday. We programmed our destination into our GPS, which told us the exact roads to take, and re-routed us to avoid traffic. It also told us where the nearest gas station was, and how to get there. We listened to music through our iPod, which allows us to access our entire musical library with just a few finger swipes. When it got too dark for L to read any more, she used her laptop to watch movies and play video games, and when she got bored with that, she logged into Skype and chatted with her friends.

People. We were speeding down the interstate and my kid was talking to her friends back home on her computer while we listened to a recording of a concert that took place halfway around the world just the previous night, all while being directed to our destination by a posh British voice that was getting directions from a satellite rocketing through the sky and beaming the information back to our car. And when we got hungry for dinner, but didn't want to eat at the McBKendy's at the next exit, I used my phone to find a mom and pop joint a few towns away that had plenty of positive reviews on Yelp. And when we were running late, I pulled up the confirmation email on my phone and clicked on the hotel's number and was immediately connected. Then I sent my relatives a text message so they wouldn't worry. But if I had wanted to, I could have called them and actually had a face-to-face chat.

Because we are living in the future. And it's pretty freaking rad.

behold! four generations of awesomeness!