Childhood Memories

My parents are the couple in the lower left of the screen at 01:28, with my mother laughing her head off at 01:29-01:30. My sister is the teenager next to her, the one with the "Supremes" style hairdo, and is visible throughout much of the video.



And I'm the kid whose head is just visible in the extreme lower-left of the frame at 0:27 of that one, visible in the clip from 00:14. Of course I had short hair then....

In 1970, it was not unreasonable for such a marvellous toy robot to cost $100 million to build - especially since it was a generation old, indicating a construction date around 1945. Yes, I know it was supposed to be a social comment on the cost of the high-tech used in the Vietnam War, still going at the time, as well as the cost of the Opera House itself, but still...

Now I have my own little boy, and time has caught up with me. I turn 50 in just a few days. And I've given my son several robots that do rather more than that wonderful toy that would have cost $100 million of 38 years ago. As I thought I would, way back then. I didn't count on my female puberty being delayed until I was 47, nor that I would have to be my child's father, not his mother. They were, if not carefree, happy days. Ignorance was bliss.

I'm sorry that my father never saw his grandson - my Daddy died in 1993, and I have yet to gather enough emotional fortitude to visit his grave. I was the strong one during that period, and for several months after, when it was needed. It was only when the pressure of duty was off that I fell apart, and I haven't gotten quite together even now. Besides which, my son takes up all of my time. That's the way it's supposed to work. You pass on the marvellous toys, and maybe even improve them on the way.