It had been a dark neighborhood secret that nobody seemed to know fully. When my grandmother passed
away, she left me the house. I had spent summers there as a kid and remember hearing about something
weird that had happened at Mrs. Lupens place next door. Her son Sherman had mysteriously disappeared
as a young boy. Mrs. Lupens eventually had to go into a nursing home, so we took care of her house. There
was a door in the basement that was all chained and locked and nailed up. Curiosity got the best of me one
night and I went down there and started working on the locks and pulling the nails. When I finally got it open,
I carefully went inside, not knowing what I would find. In the back of the musty cobweb-covered room, there
was a dim bluish light from an old television screen and other tiny blinking lights. As my face brushed past the
string to an overhead light, I turned it on and looked in awe.
A huge computerlike machine took up most the wall. It was covered with dials, knobs and gauges. There was
something distinctively handbuilt about this contraption. As I looked around the room, it had the usual junk
anyone would keep in a basement. An old bike, furniture, newspapers and a dog house. I chuckled at the name
on the doghouse. Mr.Peabody. Just like the old cartoon, "Peabody and Sherman". A shiver went up my spine.
I looked back at the machine and saw the letters- WABAC. This was the Wayback Machine and it was still running.
***
Some of you young whippersnappers may not know about Peabody and Sherman. It was a cartoon that played
within the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show in the early 60's. Peabody, a brilliant dog would take a boy named Sherman,
back in time to visit famous events in a wacky manner. It was an unusual cartoon in that a kid could actually
learn something. Something that never happens anymore with the modern tv cartoon show which are basically
30 minute commercials. WABAC is a play on the first computer called UNIVAC.
