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June 15, 2007
Time capsule
I love this story about the buried car recently dug up in Tulsa:
Hundreds watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy package from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood.
It kinda gets me all warm and fuzzy to read about the old-fashioned things found inside the car, the whole nature of the contest, and the hopes and dreams that undoubtedly accompanied the burying of the car.
Also buried with it were 10 gallons of gasoline — in case internal combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 — a case of beer, and the contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.
There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 — 382,457 — would win.
That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car and a $100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.
In case gasoline was obsolete by 2007? They didn't count on Big Oil, did they? It just goes to show that 50 years ago, nobody had any clue what the future would hold. Did they even think the world would be around in fifty years, or blown to bits by nuclear missiles?
Could anybody have predicted the technology, the political economy, and the cultural situation of today? I highly doubt it. I hope to be stomping around this great land 50 years from now, and I *know* that whatever I think is going to happen, won't. Flying cars would be nice, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
entry no. 880
Posted by oz115 at June 15, 2007 01:50 PM