Soundtrack in my head: Boards of Canada, “Ready Let’s Go”
As I rode a bus crossing the Beltline, I saw a digital sign for some furniture store that advertised its financing program by flashing the words “No Interest Until 2010.” The sign kind of creeped me out.
I think it did so for a number of reasons. One, of course, was the realization that time is flying by faster and faster. Another is that the year seems to have less meaning than before. I don’t really remember the 1960’s, or at least being conscious of the fact that it was nineteen sixty something, but I do remember the 1970’s well. I remember thinking how I was leapfrogging into the future when the 70’s gave way to the 80’s. We were in an exciting countdown to 2000, when, God knows what would happen. I figured that somehow either nuclear bombs or jet-packs would be involved. Instead we have I-Pods and hybrid cars.
Now it seems like the 20th century was a really long time ago and so for me to even mention anything from the 1970’s makes it sound like ancient history. It would not have occurred to me that Prince would still be performing after “two thousand zero zero party over oops out of time.” I think this perception of time has something to do with the odometer going around, with the year now staring with a two instead of a one, with lots of zeros. If I was born in the 1927 now living in 1967, that wouldn’t seems quite so long, ago. Or would it?
One thought on “2010”