It occurred to me after wandering around my house changing all the clocks that maybe the bewitching hour should be updated for the new millennium. In my home there is only one clock left with hands that point straight up at midnight. Maybe the old stories should be changed for the new clocks. Maybe Cinderella’s carriage should turn into a pumpkin at the time 12:34.
On digital clocks this time has more mystical significance than 12:00. I know many young children who don’t even really understand telling time before the hour. Sure they get exposed to the old clocks in school (at least in some places). You say 10 minutes until 2 and they say “Huh?” but you say “one fifty” and they get it. Many people still “dial” the phone. But put a phone with a dial in front of anyone born in the last 20 years and there is a good chance they won’t be able to complete a phone call.
I remember reading about a group of people working on restoration of a house built in the 1700’s. They were having to rediscover (and in some cases they couldn’t) how the house was built. It seems many of the skills and tools that were used had been lost. No one knew how the original builders had constructed the house or what the tools looked like. They could carefully disassemble and see “what” was done but were never absolutely certain of “how”. Hopefully with the digital age upon us we are through with losing this kind of knowledge. Maybe from here on out everything unique that people think and do and create will get recorded and saved somehow. But I am not quite sure. Certainly there are moments in all of our lives which cannot be saved anywhere but in our minds and will be lost when we are gone. Or will we invent a way to record a life as well?
Add new comment