A traveler in time
Some experiences or observations can be quite moving to an individual. When I was seven, I saw the film version of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.” In the story The Traveler physically journeys into the far future of humanity. It was not fanciful to me, it was fascinating. I did acknowledge to myself if time travel were possible, I didn’t know how to go about it; yet, I did realize I could explore distances beyond my present understanding of borders and a plan was essential.
It was a seven-block walk to school and I could now navigate it without my brother’s help. To my reasoning, by counting street corners, I could explore the other directions seven out and find my way back. My first realization was that I was traveling into the adult world. Every several blocks, there were small neighborhood business districts with stores of all kinds.
I happened upon a really neat Schwinn bicycle shop. The adult was friendly, I thought, he let me walk around the bikes and sit on them as I wanted to. The bikes reminded me of motorcycles with the painted fenders and big headlights. The one kind of by itself, a 10-speed, black with whitewalls and a white saddle, left me stunned. The use of chrome around the headlight was classic art.
Walking into the Stamp and Coin shop was uncharted territory to me, but I hid my trepidation with a respectful confidence and I strolled in without being told to shoo. The two old fellows behind the counter didn’t seem to mind my running the Berg Motion Case as I watched the trays of coins go by like a sideways Ferris wheel. I was five minutes, staring at a five- dollar gold piece in the big display case. One of the fellows offered me a closer look at the coin. He set it on a cloth on the counter and handed me a magnifying glass. Many details emerged under illumination, and I enjoyed examining the fine points in the soft gold of the circulated coin. What had caught my attention initially was the date on the coin, 1911, my father’s birth year. I had been wondering if that coin had ever been in his father’s coin purse.