Contemplating the Remote Future

HOW DELIGHTFUL, to awaken on New Year's Day, alive. Its as if you've been put in a time machine, and shunted into the future. I was a "patrol boy" in sixth grade, 1966-67. Got to wear an orange belt over the shoulder around the waist, and direct fellow children across the street on their way to and from school. It was a great honor to be a patrol boy. All the boys in the class got to do it, from time to time, and when it was your turn, you went for it. You got to serve as a patrol boy for one week. We even wore badges. Every boy got to be captain of the squad, for one glorious week. My turn came way at the end of the school year, in May, but I got to be captain for a month, not a week. Long story. (everyone else had already had the job) No girls allowed. I have no idea whether there are still "patrol boys" anywhere in the U.S. A. and its elementary schools, but if there are, I can guarantee you that girls are now inclluded. Back in the day, I didn't think a thing about it. No girls allowd was just the way it was, no questions. One day, on patril, I was standing there, daydreaming. Must've been slow traffic. I started thinking about the future, and the far off year, 1968. It seemed to me that the year 1968 would never ever arrive, so remote was it to even contemplate. Boy, was I ever wrong. In 1966, I was interested in science, and science fiction. The year 2014 sounded like a voyage into the far distant future, and indeed it was. It seemed like that yesterdy. And today, on New Year's Day, I'll be damned it if still doesn't seem that way.