As my children grow older, my Christmas days become quite a bit more relaxing. I no longer need to get out of bed before the sun comes up – actually, I’m typically the first one up. I love that time. It give me a chance to wake up slowly with my dog and my cup of coffee. I’ll take a little time to clean up any leftover dishes from the night before.
This Christmas morning, I decided to watch one of my all-time favorite movies – “You’ve Got Mail” Yes, I know that it’s very similar to “Sleepless In Seattle,” but is that a bad thing? No! Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are charming and perfect. I remember seeing this movie in the theater, in 1998. My lovely daughter Natalie came with me – she was four years old, and she loved it!!
So, as I’m watching “You’ve got Mail” for the umpteenth time, I think back to 1998. Meg Ryan used a dial-up connection to access the Internet and check her AOL account. Remember the sound that an analog modem would make when it connected? Kind of a staticky crackle, and then the beep that meant the connection was successful. Now, if we can’t immediatly get to our e-mail from multiple devices in our home, my kids want me to start calling tech support.
I also wonder if Fox Books would still be in business. F-O-X. They were the evil super-store that would put the quaint Shop Around the Corner out of business. But, would they still be here today, at the end of 2011? Joe Fox would have had to persuade his father and grandfather to embrace the 21st century and jump on the e-reader bandwagon.
What would Joe Fox have introduced to the readers of New York? Maybe the “Fox Hunter” – users could program it “hunt” for the types of books they want, and it would run out to the Internet and snatch the books!
Or, would the aging father and grandfather have squelched the idea of moving forward with the rest of the world? They may have been more concerned about keeping with tradition. They may have thought that electronic readers and the Internet would just be a phase.
I think it’s a phase that’s going to stick around for a while. I love my e-reader. I can buy books, borrow books, and find all kinds of free books. It’s so cool! I think Joe Fox would like it, too.
