| Author | Subject: 2nd attempt to build the Time Machine |
| William Feehan | Posted At 10:24:45 03/28/2002
My first thought that led to my second attempt to build the Time Machine happen Christmas morning in the year 1965. I was 13. Two weeks prior to Christmas I had told mother the two most important things I wanted and needed for Christmas. A toboggan is what I needed and a MECCANO set is what I wanted. Meccano is a construction set consisting of nuts, bolts, washers, girders, brackets, metal strips, wheels, springs, axles, motors and pulleys. I needed the toboggan because I was tired of using slabs of cardboard boxes to slide down the hill and my playmates were tired of hearing me nagging them to let me have a turn on their sled or toboggan. All my buddies had toboggans or sleds. We were too cool and mature for those aluminum saucers that the younger kids had. On Christmas morning I opened the biggest present under the tree confident that it was the Meccano set, and it was. My eyes scanned around the room looking for the toboggan but it was nowhere in site. From behind the curtain mother pulled out an aluminum saucer with a big red bow attached to it. Much to mother’s surprise she did not see my eyes light up with exuberant joy. “I asked for a toboggan," I said with a disappointed look on my face. “Yes, I know you did but everywhere I went they were sold out," she replied. I did not want to hurt mother’s feelings so I pretended that all was ok, but inside my mind I’m thinking there is no way I’m going to meet my buddies with that saucer in my hands. Later in the afternoon I was playing with the Meccano set in the living room. The saucer was standing upright against the wall near the door as if it were waiting for the next snowfall. The next snowfall that would prompt my buddies to phone me and invite me to join them tobogganing. The Christmas tree lights reflected off the saucer giving it a goldish copper color. Suddenly I was no longer looking at a saucer…..I was looking at the dish for my next Time Machine project. I gazed at the dish and looked down at my Meccano set. Once again the wheels of my inventive mind were turning and my dormant but not forgotten desire to build a Time Machine was rejuvenated. To make a long story short half way through the construction of the Time machine it was destroyed when the garage roof collapsed as a result of heavy snow build up. Today, at the age of 50,I am once again building the Time Machine at a 1/4 scale and fulfilling a childhood dream. |
| Francois Beaulieu |
Re: 2nd attempt to build the Time Machine (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 11:41:57 03/28/2002 Another great story, William... but a sad ending ! I was just waiting for you to tell us how you proudly took out your new gleaming Time Machine on the lawn the following summer. Alas, it was not to be ! Hmmmm... Childhood dreams and... childhood frustrations ! |
| Bruce Holroyd |
Re: 2nd attempt to build the Time Machine (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 23:13:42 03/28/2002 Beautiful story! William, it appears that you share the same fate as the rest of us in TM fandom.... a deep adoration for this classic film...and the warm treasured memories that it left us with! Thank you for such a glowing glimpse into the past once again!Your written adventures are the stuff that dreams are made of; rekindling the ideals of youth and the fondness for a time that I had almost forgotten! Anyone ever notice how the "Time Machine" and Christmas seem to go togetherfor some strange reason? They both hold that same Victorian charm that speaks volumes of a simpler way of life! Oh, to be young again and make that journey for the first time! Remember the impressions that you first felt as you saw that laboratory door swing open and there... dominating the entire scene, was the most incredibly wondrous, magical mechanism that you ever beheld! You knew from that very moment... you were hooked! Like you, William, I am nearing fifty years of age.. and the "Time Machine" still has the magic to whisk me away into the fantastic future!!!! May all of us devoted fans meet one day and sail off into the worlds of our collective imaginations!!!! Hold on, Weena... we are coming!!!! |
| Francois Beaulieu |
Re: 2nd attempt to build the Time Machine (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 23:36:33 03/28/2002 Well, Bruce, I think that "Christmas Season" feel has something to do with the fact that the movie takes place in that very period of the year ! New Year's Eve, more precisely, but it's that same snowy festive time of the year. Remember, the movie starts with a light snowfall and ends with one as well. Not to mention that one can't escape the fact that Pal's Time Machine is shaped like a Victorian sleigh and, as it's being pulled back into the workshop at the end of the movie, snow is falling on it ! |
| Richard D. Cole |
Re: 2nd attempt to build the Time Machine (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 11:34:37 03/31/2002 I love these stories, about playing out the Time Machine, I thought only I did stuff like that. But to this day if I pass by a garage sale or go into a thrift shop I always see something that would be a part to a Time Machine. In building small ones I would look for large candle holders, that have a dish shaped base under them (a perfect curve shape for the dish). |