Vintage SciFi Month was created by Little Red Reviewer and is moderated by Red Star Reviews. Any science fiction film, short story, play, or book released before 1979 is eligible for this celebration of classic science fiction. Click on the links above to participate, read other entries, or for more information in general.
Most of my entries for Vintage Science Fiction month tend to be reviews of films, books, or TV shows. Today I thought I’d mix things up a little by sharing some interesting vintage science fiction artwork, covers, and logos I found on various parts of Wikimedia.
The book cover for “Festus, A Poem” by Philip James Bailey. This book had about 22,000 lines of blank verse poetry written across 50 scenes about the legend of Faust. It is quite hard to find these days.
A cover of Science Fiction Quarterly from the summer 1942 issue.
A cover of Universe Science Fiction from May 1953.
A cover of Super Science Fiction from June 1959.
This is an illustration from Camille Flammarion’s 1894 science fiction novel La Fin du Monde. It predicted that a man could lie in bed and watch (what we would now call) television in bed in 1911.
Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.
Place: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming
Why I Loved It: This isn’t my photo, but I remember being mesmerized by the herds of elk, buffalo, and other large animals when my family visited Yellowstone when I was a kid. It’s awe-inspiring to be that close to creatures you’d normally only see in photos or videos. This is a fantastic place to visit for people of all ages and ability levels.
Place: Vedawoo National Park in Wyoming
Why I Loved It: Here’s an old photo of my parents, siblings, and me in Vedawoo when I was a child. It’s such a wonderful place to enjoy nature and spend time with people you care about. Someday I hope I’ll get to go back there and have another picnic and hike like we did so many times when I was little. Maybe it could even be a big extended family trip! My nephews would like running around in Vedawoo.
Photo credit: Jim Schoch
Place: Alaska
Why I Loved It: I’ve mentioned this Alaskan cruise my extended family took here before. The scenery in Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful both on water and on land. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and would love to explore the parts of it I didn’t have time for on my first trip there. There were more sights to see than there were hours in the day!
Place: Labadee Beach in Haiti
Why I Loved It: I love swimming and building sandcastles. Soaking up all of that warm sunshine feels great, too. Labadee Beach was private beach in Haiti my spouse and I have visited on a few different winter cruises. It was warm, relaxing, and peaceful. As you can probably already guess, I’d love to go back here again someday as well. There’s something nice about returning to vacation spots you already know you’ll enjoy. In the meantime, my fingers are crossed that it might be okay to visit Toronto’s beaches this summer. We’ll have to see how this year goes.
I have no idea what to add for my fifth answer to this week’s prompt, so I’ll stop here. Prince Edward Island and Hawaii are still on my bucket list, so maybe I’ll be able to see them eventually!
These are my hopes for 2021. Some are serious while others are purely frivolous.
1. That all of us who can be vaccinated for Covid-19 will be able to receive that vaccine this year. Herd immunity saves so many lives.
2. That this pandemic ends quickly and the economy of every country stabilizes again.
3. That President Biden’s transition into the White House goes smoothly.
4. That Toronto gets at least one decent blizzard this year. I love how quiet our corner of the world becomes when there’s a thick layer of snow covering everything.
5. That Jana eventually chooses one of my submissions for a future Top Ten Tuesday theme. Haha!
6. That streaming services or TV channels make more science shows like Cosmos while we’re all waiting for museums to safely reopen. I love learning about how our world works.
7. That all of our favourite living authors release new books this year.
8. That everyone gets two weeks of paid vacation time to rest and relax after everything that happened in 2020.
I’d argue that frontline workers should get at least double that amount of time off in appreciation of everything they did in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. to keep the rest of us safe, healthy, fed, and educated.
9. That I find the perfect job for my strengths, skills, and interests (and you do, too, if you also need this!)
10. That all of us have a peaceful, happy, and wonderful 2021.
Life slows down here quickly once this month begins.Not only have the majority of the big winter holidays have passed by, the weather itself isn’t terribly conducive to driving anywhere even before this pandemic began.
The overnight temperature can dip to -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) or colder, and we often have sleet and snowstorms taking turns making slippery messes of our roads and sidewalks.
There is nothing like sitting next to the windows in my home and watching the snow blanket everything on those days.
Sometimes it falls so quickly that buildings on the other side of the street have been transformed into dark blurs of colour behind a shimmery white veil of snow. Anything past that point is so smudged beyond recognition that I wouldn’t know what it was at all if I weren’t already familiar with it.
My mindful approach to these days is something that started early in life. Let’s meander for a while.
Quiet Snow Days
These storms remind me of the years I spent growing up in a small town in Wyoming. Sometimes it snowed so heavily that all of the highways and other roads going into and out of town were closed. Residents were asked to only use local roads for emergencies, so almost everyone stayed home and waited out the weather.
The snow was this deep in the nearby mountains, but not quite so heavy where I lived.
I was a slim, petite kid. For a while I remained just barely light enough to walk on top of snowbanks that had partially melted and then frozen again.
Those moments were pure magic and required no thoughts flitting through my mind at all while I carefully walked without leaving a trace in the snow.
These snowy days of the present also remind me of a massive blizzard many of us on the eastern half of North America experienced in the late 1990s.
It happened as my family was moving across town, so I had many opportunities to see the snow as my parents were driving and in the yards of both our old and new homes.
My siblings and I had our typical two weeks off from school for the Christmas holidays that year. It began snowing heavily right before we were scheduled to return to school. For the next two weeks, school was cancelled one day after the next.
Sometimes it would be delayed by an hour or two before being cancelled. Other days were so stormy that everything was cancelled immediately. I remember waiting quietly for the news each morning with no expectations since our superintendent was normally so reticent to cancel school despite how much time it took the county to salt and plow all of the rural roads that would bring students back to class eventually.
Once the announcement was made, there was often a moment of silence as I wondered how I should fill my time on yet another unexpected day since we were between semesters and I’d finished the homework we’d been given before Christmas break began.
Then a few of the members of my household would either drive across town to our old house to take another van full of stuff to the new one (if the town roads were cleared and salted recently enough for this to be safe), go shovel off the roof,* or put a previous load of stuff away.
*It was an old, flat roof in some places. That snowstorm was so heavy and never-ending my parents were afraid the roof would be damaged if they didn’t clear it off.
Snow Encourages Mindfulness
Even beyond these personal experiences, snow itself encourages silence. It dampens sound as explained in this post.
Have you ever taken an outdoor walk during or after a big snowstorm? Whether you live in a big city, a small town, or miles away from the nearest neighbour, the world becomes a much quieter place after a storm like that.
All of that snow acts like insulation. Everything from bird chirps to the roar of a river (if it hasn’t already frozen over) to the rumble of a truck driving down the road is quieter than it normally would be.
Even the soft crunch of boots walking on fresh snow is quieter than normal.
If you’ve never experienced this sort of moment in time, I hope you’ll have a chance to try it someday.
The world is such a quiet, solemn place then that I find it easy to walk without thinking. Nearly all of the familiar landmarks in my area will still be recognizable during or after a big storm, but their edges are softened and muted.
I live in an urban area where it is pretty safe to walk outside even during the heaviest snowstorms, so sometimes I’ll go stand on the sidewalk (far away from the road) and watch the snow cling to everything from skyscrapers to my glasses.
In those moments, there is no need for words or thoughts. The snow will end when it ends. Until then, I sit indoors or stand outdoors and marvel at the feeling of snowflakes coating my hair, coat, boots, and every other surface they can possible reach in this corner of the world.
If you have snow where you live, how do you react to it?
8. That everyone gets two weeks of paid vacation time to rest and relax after everything that happened in 2020.
January is the quietest time of year in Ontario.
Have you ever taken an outdoor walk during or after a big snowstorm? Whether you live in a big city, a small town, or miles away from the nearest neighbour, the world becomes a much quieter place after a storm like that.