1960's...remember your first image search— on a "laptop"?

(original artwork-all rights reserved)

....It's the spring of 1964 and my dad (Mr.Sawdust) decides it's time we looked for another dog. We hadn't had a dog in the family since the tragic loss of our German Shepherd, Flash. Our family had a set of Comptons encyclopedias and that is where our search began.

Webster's dictionary, 2001 defines the word laptop as follows:

lap-top (lap'top'), n. a portable,usu. battery powered microcomputer, small enough to rest on the lap.

In 1964 we defined it this way...

Laptop-encyclopedia opened on lap

Of course we had never heard of a Google search and the only image from that time that comes to mind when I hear the term Yahoo search is Roy Rogers letting out a hearty "yahoo" after successfully roping a wandering steer—but we were not strangers to the idea of an image search...that was something we did on a regular basis.

Image search —search encyclopedia— "D"-dog

There were several glossy pages filled with photos of every breed of dog you could imagine.

How we settled on a Basset Hound...well that's still a mystery.

The thought of a computer that could sit on your lap was...science fiction. Even the computers in Sci-fi movies were as big as elephants and filled entire rooms! Just so you don't think I'm exaggerating, take a look at this hard drive produced in 1956.

World's first hard drive-1956

Another interesting picture —"Visions of a home computer in the 50's"


The caption reads:

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a home computer could look like in the year 2000. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use and only...

So the encyclopedia was where we gravitated after school for homework and school projects. With six brothers in the house I could only hope we weren't researching the same subject!

I remember another image search that year— not long after the arrival of the Beatles in America. Enough time has passed that I will not be too embarrassed to write about it.

...but that's another story!

....The Medicine Cabinet

(original artwork-all rights reserved)

....Most days started and ended in front of the medicine cabinet, whether it was a school day or Saturday. The medicine cabinet was the place we ran to following those cateclysmic bicycle crashes, to doctor up skinned knees with that wonderful red Merthiolate and half a dozen Band-aids. There were always one or two gruesome scabs on our knees and Mom was right—they did get better before we got married.
It was where our mom sent us when we complained of a headache or toothache or sprained ankle with the instruction, “Take an aspirin!” Our moms were wiser than even they were aware of …we’re still being told to "take an aspirin"!
And of course we could always find the Vicks-VapoRub there for when we had colds. A little Vicks rubbed on our chests, a cup of hot chocolate—and seven days later we were just about all better.
Dad kept his shaving cream and razor in the medicine cabinet and when he left for work in the morning the bathroom smelled delightful— Old Spice aftershave..
Now this was a wonderfully care free time of life but there were some disturbing thoughts that occasionally entered my mind. I knew that my dad disposed of his used razor blades in that little slot in the back of the medicine cabinet made especially for the disposal of used razor blades. You can't see it pictured here, because the door isn't opened wide enough, but it's there.

*....What was going to happen when the wall was FULL of razor blades?!

And I was not the only child haunted by that thought.

*...and that childhood fear has come to haunt us—take a look at this picture taken recently by a Fort Worth Texas home inspector!

(note: the Merthiolate bottle in the medicine cabinet above is the actual bottle that was in my neighbor's medicine cabinet when we were kids...)