FIRSTS
Across
the Fence
By
Arvord Abernethy
Do you
ever think of the number of “first” you have seen in your lifetime?
The recent flight of the space shuttle made me think of that.
We who
lived much of the 20th century entered a world where most of
the transportation was either horse drawn or horseback as it had been for
thousands of years. We were separated from other lands by weeks of
sailboat travel. Then someone came along with an unproven novelty called a
horseless carriage. As the engines were improved, wings were added by two
Wright boys and they had a machine that defied gravity and stayed in the
air about 12 seconds and sailed 120. Man had joined the birds.
All of the
tilling of the soil was by beast or man power since the beginning of time;
then the tractor appeared. Now some crops are sown and then dusted and
treated for insects and weeds by airplanes. Herbicides came and replaced
the hoe. The heavy cotton sack was replaced by a cotton picking machine.
Man left
the birds and flew to the moon and back. The space shuttle accomplishment
proved that we could have space stations floating in space and they could
be serviced and used for many purposes. We saw the first computers which
made such flights possible. In school, we sang “O Columbia the Gem of
the Ocean”, now we sing it as the gem of space.
When the
first telephone came to our house, it was one of the “wonders of the
world” to us kids. Later, I made a crystal radio, but was unable to get
my parents to get out of bed and come upstairs and listen through
earphones to music that was coming through space. Now those musicians are
performing right in our living rooms.
We have
seen the first replants of worn out parts of the human body. We have seven
seen the first test tube baby.
We may
wonder it there will be any first for the next generation to see. Yes,
there will be and many will be today’s impossible dreams.
The little
boy asked his mother, “Mommy. If Santa Claus brings us presents, the
Lord gives us our daily bread, and the stork brings the babies, why do we
need men?”
Shared by Roy
Ables
ACROSS THE FENCE
