... where would you go?
Lately, I have been dreaming of the years we spent in Palo Alto, California. I see the colors of the twilight sky. I feel the cool air that drifts from the ocean over the mountains each evening. I smell the Eucalyptus trees and jasmine, the freshly mown grass at Christmas time. I walk down University Avenue, make a right on Waverly, enter my favorite haunt, sit in a rickety old chair, read the Palo Alto Weekly, drink hot chocolate and eat a chocolate pecan bar.
That haunt, The Prolific Oven, is a very special place and one that I miss often. One of the only bakeries I have ever seen open till 10 or 11 pm, it drew in Stanford students, townsfolk, the cool, the unhip, it didn't matter. We were all one there. It's not as fancy or gourmet as Gayle's, nor does it have its own cookbook, but it makes good goodies and I loved it there. When I worked nearby, we would celebrate birthdays with one of their cakes. They even made a zucchini cake back then, which I requested one year and my boss refused to eat. (It was great, by the way. Very moist.)
I was lying awake thinking about these things, and decided that one of the most needed inventions is an instant transporter. It would look a lot like a shower stall (maybe the controls could be fitted into an existing unit?) and you get in with your packed carry-on if needed, turn the dial to your location of choice, and- zappo!- there you are. You could even zap the whole family.
Imagine: California for the afternoon, back by bedtime. You've got four free hours on Friday? Great- you're off to your favorite Paris museum. Long weekend? New Zealand is calling you. Need to relax? Dial up the Seychelles. Imagine being able to go to every important family event.
This is surely not as grand as the vision W. W. Phelps had about traveling through space for spiritual enlightenment, but maybe someday I'll live to see this idea of an invention realized. For now, I get to suffer through agonizing air travel... or dream.
Where do you dream of being?
4 comments:
That reminds me of a game my brother and I used to play. At my dad's work (he worked at a waste water treatment plant) they had a shower with a hinged door , like an old telephone booth. We would get in, "dial" the knobs and play "Doctor Who," going to a bunch of different times and places. Very fun. I always wished it was true!!
That's cool. I should have mentioned that I realize this idea is not original to me, but I still think it REALLY needs inventing by someone.
For me, today, a sunny beach just about anywhere.
Love this! Meet you at The Prolific Oven. Those were the days!
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