I wish...

We all say that, throughout our lives. I often say it to myself when I think of my father. More than anyone I have ever known, he appreciated the good that has come from industry, technology. Born and raised in the era of the horse, I often heard him marvel at the convenience and comfort of travel by modern automobile, on modern "hard-surface roads", as he called them.

He once told me of driving an early automobile from Tulsa, OK to Oklahoma City. The existing dirt road had three deep ruts, two caused by teams of two horses and the wheels of the wagons they pulled. A center rut caused by a single horse pulling a buggy. Driving the car on the road often meant the ruts were deep enough that the car would "high center" and the wheels just spin. So, they drove alongside the road through pastures, cutting and mending fences as they went. The trip takes about two hours today. His trip took a couple of days.

He told another story of attending some sort of fair in which a telephone company had set up a display where people could stand on one side of the room and talk, by phone, to someone on the other side. One attendee remarked that "Some day they'll do it without the wires".

My father died years before cell phones or personal computers. Imagine the fun of demonstrating smart phones to him... or explaining the internet and all it offers. He may have a little trouble grasping the techniques of operating these new devices, but he would be impressed and appreciative. 

I wish... I could.