While I still don’t have my jetpack, I do have my picturephone.
I was four when the AT&T PicturePhone appeared on the scene. This dude went through a lot of iterations over the year – my favorite is in this Western Electric ad.
This morning as I was drinking my coffee, waking up, and trying to get motivated to go running in the rain (I think I’ll go swim instead), my dad called on Skype. I answered and we had a nice video chat. I heard about my mom’s newly rediscovered Corvette lust (go mom!) and the hike they were going to do. I saw the study in my Keystone house where they are staying which made me smile. And then I said a quick hello to my mom.
I really hate the phone. I always have – and spend much too much time on it. But for some reason I like the videophone. Maybe it’s the novelty of it, maybe it’s a different way it grabs my attention because I really engage fully with it.
Regardless, the future is catching up with my childhood in interesting ways.