Now Playing: My Heat's Desire On The Back of a Pickup
Last weekend our neighbors had a yard sale. Yesterday, while walking the dog past their house, I saw the leavings piled hapharzardly on the driveway, presumably headed for the Salvation Army or the local landfill.
With a pang of yearning, I noticed that tied to the back of a pickup truck was my heart's desire--a Mediterranean style console color television. Maybe it was an RCA (the most trusted name in electronics) or maybe it was a Zenith (the quality goes in before the name goes on). But forty some years ago, that baby was special and it most certainly put somebody back quite a few bucks.
I wanted a color television more than anything in the world when I was 11. It would have been heaven on earth to be able to watch Star Trek in color every Friday, instead of going to my grandparents' house to watch it on their color TV. Despite my relentless pleas, my mother would not budge. We did not need a color television.
Now I live in a house where there are three color televisions. Also a number of things that weren't even available for home use in 1967, computers, video games and digital cameras. We live in a wonderfully egalitarian society now. Everyone has color TV.
You wait long enough and whatever it is you want is yours. For example, I drive a 1984 Nissan 300ZX, a truly hot car in 1984 and I would have loved to have had it then, when I was hot myself. (I was a damn fine looking woman when I was 28). Now In 2006, it's just another old car and I'm just another not quite old (but getting there) woman driving it. The 300ZX is a bit of a rarity, and it still retains a degree of its bitchin' allure, but, like me, it's nowhere near what it used to be.
So when my daughter begs me for some gadget that's totally hot and all the cool kids have one, I think of the color television on the pickup and assure her that whatever it is, she will certainly own one in forty years. Or maybe even less.
