Here is a picture of the library in Cincinnati - which was demolished in 1955.
So if you are wondering why nobody is using your drastically underfunded local library and can't figure out why it might close soon, the answer is because it doesn't look like this. I would spend all of my time, every single day of the week in the library if it looked even a fraction of this.
Hanging out here would be an adventure in itself. There's nothing remotely exciting or indeed useful about looking at local papers, hiring cheap DVDs and then returning them to a convenient drop box because there are no staff left who know what you're talking about.
Try it. Try going into your local library and asking where they keep their John Creasey collection - or if they have anything by Sheridan Le Fanu. If they go for a keyboard, you must leave a pre-made post-it note on their screen that says:
"You are a shopkeeper, not a librarian."
It's time to face some harsh facts about this world. Some things were better before. Some things do need funding from the public purse. The money is still around - contrary to popular belief, we are still amongst the wealthiest nations in the world - the powers that be have simply decided the cash is better spent on other things. I can't comment on it politically because I don't follow that game enough to do so but if we can afford war and more airport terminals, we can afford real public library facilities that are worth going to war over.
Talking of airports, here's a promo pic of a PanAm 747 from the late 60s:
This is economy class too but the next stage of air travel will not make your coming flight an experience even remotely similar to going on holiday with the cast of Mad Men.
Here's a 1925 Rolls Royce Phantom:
That's nearly 100 years ago. Sure, it's a Roller but you would think somebody would have gone out on a limb and done something of this much value in the years in between.
Seems to me that the only advancements being made any more are inside computers, phones and vacuum cleaners.
Is this really the world we created? When did it get so small? When did we become so easily pleased?
If you too want to sink into a mild depression about how the governments and companies that decorate our society think more about how much something costs than leaving something of value behind, you should follow @History_Pics on twitter. It's an eye opener for sure.
Me? I'm still working on a picture of my possessions that amounts to less than this one from Gandhi. Hopefully, when I die, I will have had to hand the keys to my car in already - or maybe I could spread my belongings out on the bonnet in a grand overblown display of irony.
I don't need glasses for reading, so that's one in the win column for me but man, those shoes look uncomfortable. You can probably find something similar if you drop into Next at the weekend.