They rest, somewhat neatly, in a bookcase here at the ranch; a bookcase we do not open all that often. There isn’t much call for any book in a set of encyclopedias these days.
The set is copyright 1987, eons ago in our current world. When we first got them they were the pride of the bookcase, the gems of knowledge we were able to luckily afford and place at the disposal of our children. I recall looking through them for the fun of it just to see what I could learn about, anything. I had a set by the same company in my way earlier years and did the same thing then. “P” for Pennsylvania, “A” for animals, “M” for mining each offering an opportunity to learn something new and they were just the beginning. A-Z, a whole world at my fingertips. As they say, however, that was then and this is now.
The copyright year on our current set sums up the whole situation; 1987 is a long time back in time. What is in each of those gilded volumes is now easily found on the Internet. Whatever information is contained on each of those pages is now thirty some years old and while it often makes interesting reading, updates covering all that time can be had in the blink of an eye with the push of a button.
So in our bookcase rests what might be considered a time capsule, an artfully designed, carefully crafted time capsule from a different era. Despite its age, though, it is still an old friend that served us well over the years. Perhaps I’ll renew our acquaintance now that I think of it. It’s been a long while since I visited “T” and “C”.
Have a good day Dear Viewer.
