Alas and alack.- another best loved companion bites the dust.
With each passing year, old companions and favorite pastimes fade away and get filed in our memory banks to be called forth and savored at odd moments. Once you reach a "certain age" you notice that those passings start occurring ever more frequently – and you notice that you're enjoying those fond memories much more completely.
It happens when favorite actors and actresses move on to a "better place" leaving the characters they played to dance and bewitch us on the big screen from time to time. It happens when black and white tv and other fancy gadgets that entertained us for hours on end in the not so distant dark ages – take on morph into ever more fancy gadgets….bringing color, 3-D and the like into our lives.
Well, it's happening again. Encyclopedia Britannica is moving online and it's voluminous tomes will no longer rest on the floor in front of a child engaged in the flights of fancy between its covers.
I don't know which I loved more, the Encyclopedia or the Book of Knowledge. But I'm glad my parents were willing to sacrifice to ensure that we could enjoy both. Long lazy summer days between school terms when active youngsters were bored, and cold winter nights that chilled our found us cuddled up and engrossed in those magnificent pages.
Now you're probably thinking, here goes, another old fogie brooding about the good ol' days.
Nope.
I will admit I have deeply mixed feelings about the passing of these loved companions and their move online. While I will treasure those memories I'm equally thrilled that now books are coming of age. What a joy to be able to explore the world – not just in words and pictures – but also in real time.
I wish to say a heartfelt thank you for all those delightful experiences and companions who have grown up and old with me.