AT THE beginning of each year, [look around and say to myself, “My God, it's the future! [tived into the future!" Prramere pup of $3, It was lOSt, Hitler was astride Europe. Bombs were raining on London, | was born in Winnipeg. A long time ago, in other words, ina strange era known as the Second World War, Howas a tire of grainy black- and-white news reels with no sound +. just agitated announcers telling us what was happening. I was surely too young to remember seeing any of these news teels at the time they were news, but after the war, | know, the news reels continued to replay the war until Korea came along, and provided more incredible war viz. ‘Twas ata Saturday afternoon matinee at the Vogue Theatre in St. Vital, Manitoba, waiting to see an Errol Flynn swashbuckler flick when the news reel showed a hydro- gen bomb test out in the ocean, reducing the warships to mere specks, My first glimpse of The Bomb, This, we learned, was what the bad guys had in store for us, And, sure enough, somewhere around there, air raid drills started happen- ing at school. By this time, | was attending Kelvin High in a place called Fort Rouge, and here we were, being marched out into the cinder-covered schoolyard, and told to stand in rows waiting while the sirens continued to yowl. That's how close it seemed, even in Winnipeg, to The End Of The World. « It wasn't until later, of course. ‘that I realized 1 was living in the _. buffer zone that would become.a ‘nuclear no-man’s land in the event of a missile exchange between the Soviets and the Americans, No wonder I grew up paranoid about nuclear weapons. That was STRICTLY PERSONAL the defining Canadian experience of that era, | contend. We grew up in the middle of the main batilefield-to-be, with tens of thousands of [CBMs and Minutemen aimed at each other over our lithe Canuck heads. {n most of us, the spectre of our lives going up in radioactive dust played a determining role in how we shaped our marriages, our careers, our philosophies. { think, in many ways, this underlying terror of imminent mega- demise severed us from the future, except for the escapist future of sci- ence fiction. I would go so fur as to say that the baby boomers, the yuppies and ‘the hippies were all suffering from some kind of traumatized reaction to what lay ahead for them: like, noth- ing Jess than more-or-less certain doom. Think: if you spent your forma- tive years being told you were about to be nuked, wouldn't you have a different attitude than, say, a person. whose basic attitude toward life was shaped at a time when no such | threat was even imaginable? This Valentine’s Day, why not try.a change from the usual flow rs and chocolates? Al Jones the Jeweler we havea great selection of lasting gifts thal are sure to please your sweetheart and fit your budget. Drop by and shop to your heart's content! THE JEWELER ; 807 Hornby Strect, Telephone 681-9548 Open Monday to Thitesday 9:00 am to.5:30 pm, Fridays i] 9:00 pm. ff ‘arking available in Pac wcific Centre and the Hotel Vancouver. ¥ : I dow t think we were alienated so much as just plain old tauma- lized, and this was such a wide- spread effect that we all just took it as normal, and didw't realize how profound an influence aus pall of gloom hanging over our heads was, That was, as | say, a long time ago ina historic warp far away. | suppose part of the reason | treat euch new year as my arrival, one more time, in “the future,” is because | didn’t really expect to live fo see It. I didn’t think any of us were going to see it. It still amazes me that we are all alive. When the Cold War ended, | know | had to go through a period of adjustment, For instance, even just a few months ago, seeing a choice piece of field behind somebody's farm, 1 said to my wife, “Hey, wouldn't this be a great place for a concert?” And the two of us laughed, realizing that there wasn’t the same urgency to | organizing a fundraiser for Ban the Bomb as there used to be. 1 stil] have problems with this future I've personally lived into, counted, in the Christian calendar, as the year AD 1995, We are undoubtedly under- responding to the next crisis we face, that ef a climatological (and therefore everything else) disaster, but horrendous as it gets — whether as Ice Age or greenhouse — it can't be anywhere near us bad as a nuclear winter would have been. In this future world of 1995, I look around and notice that we are not facing the threat of overnight Armageddon. There, I got to use the word again. Naturally, growing up when 1 did, it became one of my favorite words, along with apocalypse. Thardly get to use either one of them any longer uniess I'm talking about global warming, but this isa tauch longer-term, slower-motion, un-instantancous thing, and itis not really an apocalypse or Armageddon, so much as an adjust- ment, probably, on the part of the planet, with incredibly painful side- effects for us and everything else. but not The End Of The World. Ihave to admit I rather like this future world that, to my utter aston- ishment, | survived into. It’s flashy, and while that's not automatically a major plus, it's sure not dull. I like cyberspace stuf!) [like mass communications. | like toys. | lived long enough to put on a virtual reality helmet. I lived long enough to have caught the Golde. Age of jet travel (now, unfortunately, over). Hived long enough to have a cell phone. [lived long cnough to see IMAX, | lived long enough to write on a computer. I lived Jong enough to get somes one to mode iy stuff for me. I lived long enough to try laser acupuncture, [ised long enough to relay a live feed via satellite to a television audience half a world away. [ lived long enough to ride on the Sky'Train, 1 lived long enough to have a waterbed. I lived Jong endugh to wear Nicaderm patches. [lived long enough to drink from a recyclable styrofoam cup. | lived Jong enough to make a phone calf from an L- 1011. Who knows what FI get to try this year? Make love to a hologram? Wear mag-lev shoes? Turn on a machine just by using my thoughts? The future. [love it, At Sylvan ‘better or are just the beg: At Sylvan, we pinpoint your child's needs, develop a personalized program and deliver it ita positive, tin and caring environmen Call Sytvan, today. to learn how we can help your child, 985-6811 Full Club "Membership - $e 95, aa | from. /month |. one time initiation to get started (financially speaking) Not satisfied with your present fitness facility? We have the best © membership trade-in program available. - Limited Time Offer : :