Lady in Red

In this modern age, the internet is truly a wonderful and marvelous thing. 

Between social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and other similar services, people have found and even reconnected with long lost friends and family. However, it's those search engines like Google, Bing, Altavista and many more, where the past can come to life....to a degree.

Take this obscure moment from own life, for example.  

It was sometime in the mid to late 80's and I was at the doctor's office. I don't think it was something too serious, probably another routine checkup. In the waiting area, scattered across the top of a table in the center of the room was an assorted collection of magazines. Many were missing their covers, enticing people to pick them up and flip through the first few pages to discover the remaining content and decide to continue reading. Like everyone else sitting there that day, I fell into that trap too.

I got lucky and scored a car magazine, Car and Driver. Once I made it past the first few pages of advertisements, I was welcomed by glorious pictures of vehicles I will never own in real life. It wasn't until I opened up the section I have reposted here, that things entered a slow motion phase.

I have never been a big fan of red cars, despite owning a few over the years. However, this car, both then and now, is one of those exceptions. It was in that doctor's office, reading through that article and starring at the pictures that triggered a moment of awakening. Cars were not only just cool looking machines that moved people around, they could be things of beauty, admired both from within and from the outside.

I remember the actual visit with the doctor was a turn the head, cough and answer a few questions type of affair. I remember leaving and returning home with my mother and once I reached my bedroom, realized I was still clutching the cover less magazine. I swear, I didn't mean it, it just happened!

Over the years, what was left of the magazine fell apart. The staples couldn't hold the well read and worn pages together anymore and eventually it had to be thrown out. However, those images would forever be burned into my mind's eye and memory.

Fast forward a generation, to a world where technology can almost fulfill any dream. Perhaps, even retrieve a long lost experience nearly erased with time. I was sitting at my computer when this episode from my past just burst into my consciousness. I put Red Porsche Test Drive in Goggle. Nothing. Then, I added in 1986. It showed up as the sixth result down. The postings I have here can be retrieved from http://media.caranddriver.com/files/porsche-911-turbo1986-porsche-911-turbo.pdf

It's funny, how a machine of information can connect to a memory of a machine of beauty, with so many years in between.