Time Capsule REVEALED

      Twenty five years ago I predicted the decline of the internet. I know that since I just opened a time capsule I created that included personal observations I made back when Y2k was just around the corner.

     Of course, I was wrong, globally as well as personally. Since 1999, I've started a blog, created my YouTube channel, and joined Facebook. But I still don't own a cell phone, which I referred to as a “cordless telephone” when I wrote my Y2k personal profile 25 years ago.

     So what else did I pull out of my time capsule? I included over 30 photos taken back then. Our city has grown much since. My kids' elementary school that I photographed 25 years ago is no more, torn down with a newly built subdivision taking its place. But our house is the same with mostly cosmetic changes—carpeting replaced or rooms painted different colors. Much of the furniture has been replaced but the old piano I played which my parents moved 100 miles from my hometown of Bay City lies only a few feet from where it sat 25 years ago. It's woefully out of tune, however.

     One photograph captured our pet dog Doogie lying on our bed, his favorite spot, particularly when the sun warmed the quilt where he laid. Doogie's been gone for almost 17 years but we still remember his antics as vividly as they happened 20 years ago. He was a favorite topic of my blogs. By the way, when you Google “blogspot” today, you will read that it still exists but has declined in popularity “as its features and design have become somewhat outdated."

     Hmmm, what was it that old Fezziwig said in the 1951 movie version of Scrooge? “I'll have to be loyal to the old ways and die out with them if needs must.” Long live blogspot, or blogger as it's known now.

     From the capsule cannister I also dug out a 1999 TV Guide that rated the 50 greatest characters ever to appear on TV shows. Topping that list was Louie De Palma from Taxi. He beat out Arthur Fonzarelli, Lucy Ricardo and Mr. Spock from Star Trek. A more recent list of the top 50 greatest TV characters compiled by the “ranker” website didn't list De Palma at all. Mr. Spock ranked 20^th with Lucy and Fonzie further down the list. What do they say? Fame is fleeting?

     I also pulled out a Special Millennium Edition of USA Today. It amazed me how little has changed in the past 25 years. On page two was an article about officials in southern California fearing that fireworks set off to mark the beginning of 2000 may start disastrous fires after they suffered a particularly dry summer. Also, there was a computer glitch that froze 50 million Hotmail accounts. Actually it was a $35 bill that Microsoft owed. An independent computer consultant paid the bill and service was restored. Then there were stories about tension in the MidEast, a mass shooting in Florida (the Columbine shootings occurred in 1999), and the stabbing of former Beatles guitarist George Harrison.

     By the way, USA Today's predictions for the future weren't much better than mine. By 2000, they said the Pokemon fad would be out, replaced by Pokey Reese. I don't know what Pokey Reese is but my grandsons are crazy about their Pokemon cards. I had one professionally appraised myself. USA Today also predicted that ads should be removed before movies are shown at theatres that will also employ jamming devices to disable cell phones so patrons aren't distracted while enjoying the latest feature. Yeah, like that happened

     The irony of some USA Today articles impressed me most. As 2000 would be a presidential election year, the newspaper previewed some of the potential candidates. One such individual was a confessed germ-phobe, pictured with the subtitle “clean hands freak”. USA reported that he sanitized his hands after greeting potential voters and distributed bottles of hand sanitizer to reporters.

     That was Donald Trump who did run and won the presidency 16 years later, then faced one of the worst outbreak of infections in history with the Covid virus.  There could be more irony in Trump's re-election as he promised the return of the Panama Canal to the United States.  USA reported in its Millenium edition that the U.S. had just turned over the canal to Panama.