Car Windows

"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you of how powerful they are." ~ Clive James

Something came up about cars yesterday that led me to reflect on a few things.  In the "old days", especially in the 70's, you would regularly see people "working on" cars in a neighborhood.  Even as a young child growing into a teen, it was a regular observation that there were plenty of people around who knew how to fix and maintain a car in a variety of ways.  Or if you did need to bring a car in to a mechanic, it was relatively simple, usually.

This has changed.

No doubt, there are countless reasons why, safety-wise, emission-wise, etc. - and yes, feature-wise.

However, for whatever the reasons, the world has changed.  And it is my continuing intent in this blog to explore how these changes have changed how we behave.

When cars became essentially impossible for people who liked to fix their own cars to independently fix, something changed.  A dependency was created that didn't exist in the same way before.  This had an impact on regular life and self-sufficiency.

Technology can solve and enhance any number of things, but it also continually takes us in a direction that makes life more intricate.  

I was watching a movie the other night from the late 1980's in which a character was in a fancy town car and fascinated with the automated locks.

It got me to thinking about the days when there were no power locks and you manually opened the windows yourself.  As convenient as that "feature" is and probably more secure, there is something I miss about cranking open a car window.  What is that about?

 

Car photo from the mid-1980's, Susan Larison Danz.