'ROUND THE TRACK

I know that shortly the horse track and the newspaper will share a condo in the land of retirement. Future generations will regard both with the same puzzled look as the telephone booth, that they see in comic books. You mean there was a time before mobile phones and msnbc?

And I am all for going green and saving trees and I love the internet and such but, I love the horses too. And the mystique of the newsroom from back in it's glory days. Hello, I was obsessed with Newsies once upon a time! Because of it's old timey goodness and it was smart and communal. And without the track and the newspaper and the phone booth we are losing our sense of community.

Obtuse as that may sound, I think I am on to something. Once upon a time people got up, went to get a coffee, read the paper at the counter and chatted (or went to the newsstand and chatted). They checked the track results and maybe passed on a hot tip, or picked one up. Now you can certainly make a case that people still get up and wander down to Starbucks for coffee and the news. However it will be read off their laptop, while they chat on their mobile and ignore the other tables (no counters here), and I bet they've never left their laptop behind for the next person.

In another generation will we even know how to be a community?