Saturday, October 20, 2012

This boggles my mind

Not that it takes much for my mind to be boggled, but today I came across this video of a game show that I remember from my youth, called "I've Got a Secret." The format of the show involved four celebrity panelists and a guest who had some kind of secret. As you'll see, the guest would whisper the secret to the show's host, Garry Moore. The panelists would then ask questions in an effort to learn the guest's secret.

This video (I think technically it's called a "kinescope" or some such thing...what we now know as digital or taped video had not been invented) is from early 1956, the same year I was born. The guest on this episode is a fellow named Samuel J. Seymour, who was the last surviving person in attendance at Ford's Theater the night Abraham Lincoln was shot.

I often find myself thinking about the way generations can overlap and extend through time. For example, I remember spending time with my great-grandfather, Simon Droogsma, who was born in 1873. On the other end of the chain, my grandchildren - with normal life spans - will likely be around to see the year 2100. So you have a chain of three people spanning about 230 years. I can tell my grandchildren first-person stories of someone who lived before their were planes, cars or telephones.

This feels the same way. You can now see and hear an eyewitness to something that took place nearly 150 years ago. Enjoy.


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