hello future

our kids can't believe we didn't have remote controls back in the day.  

they say no way when we tell them yeah, we had to walk up to the tv, turn a dial, and decide between one of three channels.

they cannot imagine what our world could have been like without voice mail.  

email.

texting.

they think it's 'weird.'

they tell us we grew up in the 'old days.'

back in the day, after the remote came along, there were personal computers.  the godfather and i met in college.  we tell our girls about the computer science majors we knew, who had to work in the computer science lab, who's mysterious homework involved reams and reams of interconnected paper, countless inches thick.

they say no way.

we say yeah, it's true.

how can they imagine that, when they hold computers in the palms of their little hands?

after graduation, the godfather went to work in his 'mysterious business' involving the world of investments.

i designed a clothing line for children.

the work involved showing new collections each season in new york.  buyers, editors, designers from around the globe would gather and create one gigantic hub.

several of us got to know each other throughout those years, and would chat in between shows.

we lived all over the country, and at that time had to connect via telephone calls back and forth during those months in between deadlines.

i'd get calls about production, button sourcing, print ads.

i'd make calls about sketches, layouts, or deliveries.

talk. talk. talk.

it was a very big and very small world.

once i was talking to my bud david in brooklyn.

the new york times had just done a fairly large spread in the style section on his work.

regarding the smallness of the world, he happened to be buds with boris karloff's daughter, boris had starred as the iconic frankenstein in those early movies.

since she had the rights to her father's images, she let david create a frankenstein print, andy warhol pop style, all over groovy little t shirts for children.

it was pop art for the pre - school set.

this was 'back in the day', considered 'groundbreaking' at the time.

david spoke very slowly, almost like frankenstein himself.  he kind of walked like him too, heavy footed and lumbering.

he asked me, katy.

what do you think of this whole WORLD WIDE WEB thing?

(www....)

i said what?

he said the world wide web?

whoa.

how old school now to imagine that?

but at the time it was very far out there.

very freaking sci fi.

way out in some undefined stratosphere.

alas though, that was then.

 here we are now, living in that very 'future,' so ingrained with it, we  hardly even think of it.

how many times do you ever hear anyone even say www. anything anymore?

you might hear such and such .com

not www.

anyway.

the future is here.

alive and well?

believe it.

in this lifetime, you and your children will experience far less devastation from cancer.

what's going on in the cancer world right this second will blow your d*amn mind.

no.

it will save it.

xx katy