Wayback Machine
© Thomas Wilson Shawcross 16 Oct 2005
The Wayback Machine, circa 1959
Shown here are Peabody and his boy Sherman
Last Friday afternoon at work, I met with Kendra Cooke, Jorge Camargo, Chris Welker, and Jim Mio to review some web page designs. At one point, a question arose regarding how certain pages had looked a few years ago, and Chris said, “Let’s take a ride in the Wayback Machine.” I wondered what Chris was talking about. Suddenly, the projector started displaying web pages from the past.
We had gone back in time!
Well, sort of. Chris had logged on to http://www.archive.org/ , otherwise known The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit that was founded to build a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts, with the purpose of offering free permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars and the general public. It makes it possible to surf the web pages of the past and find text, audio, moving images and live music.
Of course, the original Wayback Machine appeared in Jay Ward’s cartoon series Peabody’s Improbable History, which was a back-up segment on the Rocky & His Friends cartoon on ABC and The Bullwinkle Show on NBC.
Peabody was a dog who had a boy (Sherman), and together they would use the Wayback Machine to travel back in time and influence how things were later to be recorded in history books.
I had been hooked on Jay Ward cartoons since the first time I saw his Crusader Rabbit, which was the first made-for-TV cartoon series. Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick, Ragland T. Tiger (“Rags”), had personalities that were the opposite of their appearance. It was a wonderful show!
Rags and Crusader Rabbit
But, I digress. I was a regular viewer of Peabody’s Improbable History, and so, it seems, were the people who created the Wayback Machine Internet search site.
Lately, I have been using another form of a Wayback Machine – a website created by Brenda Garver Lee – to travel back in time and read about events that happened in Ava, Illinois. Brenda’s website is called Who Was Who in Ava, IL and it is posted at http://groups.msn.com/WhoWasWhoinAvaIL
Today, I logged onto Brenda’s site and read a story that was originally published in The Ava Citizen newspaper on 15 Oct 1965. The story is about a birthday party for a one-year old girl. The little girl was presented with a birthday cake adorned with “a little doll with an umbrella over it.” The little girl thought the doll was pretty, and she kissed it.
The final paragraph of the newspaper article noted that “Refreshments of cake, jello, kool aid, and sandwiches were served.” That really took me back in time. I don’t think these are typical refreshments any more. I can picture the sandwiches, and I know they were made with white bread. That’s the only kind of bread we ever ate. Now, I have had white bread only once in the past thirty years, and that was when Aunt Dorothy brought a dish of pot roast (and white bread) to our farm near Ava.
I cannot remember the last time I had Kool-Aid. When I was a younger boy than I am now, I enjoyed Kool-Aid on a fairly regular basis. I suppose it was much cheaper than soda. Mom used to make jello, too. My favorite was red jello with sliced bananas in it. Maybe I will try to talk my son into making some for me (my CADD* disability prevents me from making jello myself).
If I could go back in time, I would persuade General Foods to come up with a more imaginative name for their Smiling Pitcher icon (I think I could come up with something better than their “Kool-Aid Man”). Also, I would plunk down a nickel and buy a package of Kool-Aid and make homemade popsicles like Mom used to make in our icebox, using orange Kool-Aid, Popsicle sticks, and an ice-cube tray (in the era before air-conditioning).
* CADD is Cooking Attention Deficit Disorder
The Wayback Machine, circa 1959
Shown here are Peabody and his boy Sherman
Last Friday afternoon at work, I met with Kendra Cooke, Jorge Camargo, Chris Welker, and Jim Mio to review some web page designs. At one point, a question arose regarding how certain pages had looked a few years ago, and Chris said, “Let’s take a ride in the Wayback Machine.” I wondered what Chris was talking about. Suddenly, the projector started displaying web pages from the past.
We had gone back in time!
Well, sort of. Chris had logged on to http://www.archive.org/ , otherwise known The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit that was founded to build a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts, with the purpose of offering free permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars and the general public. It makes it possible to surf the web pages of the past and find text, audio, moving images and live music.
Of course, the original Wayback Machine appeared in Jay Ward’s cartoon series Peabody’s Improbable History, which was a back-up segment on the Rocky & His Friends cartoon on ABC and The Bullwinkle Show on NBC.
Peabody was a dog who had a boy (Sherman), and together they would use the Wayback Machine to travel back in time and influence how things were later to be recorded in history books.
I had been hooked on Jay Ward cartoons since the first time I saw his Crusader Rabbit, which was the first made-for-TV cartoon series. Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick, Ragland T. Tiger (“Rags”), had personalities that were the opposite of their appearance. It was a wonderful show!
Rags and Crusader Rabbit
But, I digress. I was a regular viewer of Peabody’s Improbable History, and so, it seems, were the people who created the Wayback Machine Internet search site.
Lately, I have been using another form of a Wayback Machine – a website created by Brenda Garver Lee – to travel back in time and read about events that happened in Ava, Illinois. Brenda’s website is called Who Was Who in Ava, IL and it is posted at http://groups.msn.com/WhoWasWhoinAvaIL
Today, I logged onto Brenda’s site and read a story that was originally published in The Ava Citizen newspaper on 15 Oct 1965. The story is about a birthday party for a one-year old girl. The little girl was presented with a birthday cake adorned with “a little doll with an umbrella over it.” The little girl thought the doll was pretty, and she kissed it.
The final paragraph of the newspaper article noted that “Refreshments of cake, jello, kool aid, and sandwiches were served.” That really took me back in time. I don’t think these are typical refreshments any more. I can picture the sandwiches, and I know they were made with white bread. That’s the only kind of bread we ever ate. Now, I have had white bread only once in the past thirty years, and that was when Aunt Dorothy brought a dish of pot roast (and white bread) to our farm near Ava.
I cannot remember the last time I had Kool-Aid. When I was a younger boy than I am now, I enjoyed Kool-Aid on a fairly regular basis. I suppose it was much cheaper than soda. Mom used to make jello, too. My favorite was red jello with sliced bananas in it. Maybe I will try to talk my son into making some for me (my CADD* disability prevents me from making jello myself).
If I could go back in time, I would persuade General Foods to come up with a more imaginative name for their Smiling Pitcher icon (I think I could come up with something better than their “Kool-Aid Man”). Also, I would plunk down a nickel and buy a package of Kool-Aid and make homemade popsicles like Mom used to make in our icebox, using orange Kool-Aid, Popsicle sticks, and an ice-cube tray (in the era before air-conditioning).
* CADD is Cooking Attention Deficit Disorder
posted by Tom Shawcross | 10:09 AM
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