World's Fair and FaceTime with George

In the summer of 1965, our family, including Grandma Katy, packed into our brand new 1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible and ... after Dad served his 2 weeks of active duty at Fort Sheridan, Illinois ... drove to New York to attend the 1964-1965 World's Fair. 

The five of us, along with 51,607,302 other visitors, gazed at the expositions with awe and wonder. The FUTURAMA exposition took us on ride to the City of Tomorrow. We stared in disbelief at the idea of floating around in air cars,

were introduced to the computer modem and watched Abraham Lincoln come alive thanks to the wonders of Audio-Animatronics.

However, the most intriguing to me was Bell Telephone's new fangled concept known as the Picturephone.

Predictions were that Picturephones would be a common household appliance in the near future. There was only one catch ... they were very, very expensive. A 3 minute Picturephone call between New York and Chicago cost $27 ... the equivalent of $206 today. 

Well, a mere 50 years later, the Picturephone is finally an affordable reality. Known to us as FaceTime

it offers grandparents in Kansas the opportunity to see, and visually interact with, their grandson in California. We love FaceTime with George.

While technology marches on, some things never change. I still love, and occasionally drive, the now almost 50 year old 1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible.