Horses IN Carriages and Other Bizarre Realities
Nov 15 – write a letter from an ancestor living in the 1800s visiting today
Dear Anna,
I know you are going to say that I am having a dream and that I must be feverish, but you would not believe what things will be like in 2016!
I know that our farm is small, but our neighbors have at most 8 milk cows compared to our two. There are barns here with 50 or more! They run these barns with just a handful of people. They have machines to milk the cows! Imagine that. And all the milk goes into massive metal tanks that travel along roads (without ditches and ruts mind you) to a place where it is put into bottles and then to the merchants.
These merchants are vast buildings, bigger than any barn in Great Bend and have enough food to feed the county, maybe even the state! The packaging is rather peculiar. Much food is wrapped in what they call plastic, a smooth, sometimes crinkly paper. They even have bottles made of the stuff and if you drop it, it doesn’t break! There are all sorts of foodstuffs: vegetables, fruit, grains, milk, cheese, eggs and meats as well as some things I have never seen before. There is an entire street of something called cereal, which is explained as being like a porridge, but cold and crunchy. The meats are cold all of the time and are almost indistinguishable as to what sort of creature they came from. Some are so cold as to be frozen, even in the summer.
I went for a ride in a car. This magical carriage needs no horses or oxen to power it and can go REALLY fast. We traveled through eight cities in an afternoon. I did see horses on the road at one point, but they were traveling IN one of these carriages. Imagine that, horses getting a ride!
Everywhere one goes there are sounds. In the car and in the stores one can hear music, though you don’t see the person who is singing. There are also beeps and pings when doors open and close; I have yet to discover what actions cause them. Oh, and there are also these magic doors that open when you get close to them!
The clothing styles are rather strange. There are very few women and girls in skirts; instead they wear pants as men do, sometimes very short ones. Almost no one wears hats. Modesty is in short supply; I have tried not to, but have seen many people’s undergarments. People walk around looking at what look like small books in their hands and sometimes hold them to their ears and talk.
Yesterday I heard a loud noise above and was frightened to see a very large object going across the sky. I was told that there is nothing to fear, that airplanes are common and are full of people. Did you read that? PEOPLE ARE FLYING!
The house I am staying in is a pleasant one. It is a farmhouse much like ours, but also very different. I cannot understand how the stove works and they also cook with a small box that beeps quite a bit and makes food very hot. The lamps are lit by touching a spot on the wall and they have a huge screen in the living room that displays pictures from all over the world. There is no outhouse; instead they have several bathrooms indoors where they can bathe with hot water at any time. There is even a machine to wash the dishes!
Though things are amazing here, I miss home. Things here are faster, louder and busier. Though I sometimes complain about heading out to the barn in the wee hours, it is comforting knowing what to expect. I hope to return soon and tell you more about this adventure.
Your loving husband,
John