A Glitch In The Matrix: I Saw A Modern Smart Phone On A Streetcar In 1996
“You can have the TV from the basement.” My dad says.
It is spring of 1997. I am moving out of my parent’s home.
I rented a bachelorette off of Queen Street in downtown Toronto. A five minute walk from the Big Bop Concert Hall. I left $400 for first month’s rent and the mandatory $200 just in case you trash the place deposit. A whopping $600 in total. But hey, big city, big prices.
“I don’t want a big TV. I want one of those small flat ones I can carry with me and watch on long subway rides.”
My campus was in Mississauga. A twenty minute walk from my parent’s house. It actually made no sense for me to live in Toronto. But I wanted at the world. And I couldn’t be me in the constricted confines of my parent’s space anymore.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.” My dad says.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Surely you have seen them. They are like the size of your hand and flat.”
“I don’t know what exactly you are imagining. Sure there are small TVs, but they suck batteries faster than you buy them, and the antenna is not good for picking up signals on subways. Also I don’t even know where to get them. I have never been interested in small TVs. Why have a useless…
