Letter: Obsolete technology is a gateway to the past

EDITOR,
I tripped out the other day on a new kind of counterculture experience. Recently I read a list of the many things we have used and depended on in our everyday lives that are now considered to be out of date and no longer necessary. That’s when I took a drive down Obsolete Road.
I was reading the newspaper (the kind that shows up on the front porch every morning).  Between sips of coffee I happened upon an intriguing article about a book — with real pages, and a dust jacket and everything. It’s a collaborative effort by movie director/producer J. J. Abrams and novelist Doug Dorst, titled “S.” Not only was I attracted to the format, but also to the fact that a movie maker would choose to make a book. Cool!  
I was so curious I had to grab the phone book, flip to the white pages, look up the number for our local independent book store, and call — on the land line. A real person’s voice greeted me. Did they have a copy? I hoped. Yes! They promised to hold it for me. I jumped into my ’91 Ford sedan and headed for town.  I picked up the book, paid for it in cash, and went home happy.
Change happens fast, with many familiar things fading quickly into the past, some on the seeming verge of extinction. For those of us from the days of a past counterculture movement, sometimes a trip down Obsolete Road can be pretty satisfying — like, groovy, man.
Laurie Hawkins, Mount Hermon