They were racing in France.

In 1962 I went to SAAC Camp in Westport, Connecticut. It was based at a school that no longer exists, I’ve searched for it a number of times, both in real life and online, and finally its destruction has been documented in Google Maps, I was never sure if it was a trick of the mind. Used to be, back in the nineties, the internet was new, actually, at first the hoi polloi were all on AOL, which was a walled garden. The opportunity to go on the World Wide Web…that was a thrill, the entire planet opened up to you at your fingertips. But now that’s de rigueur.

But space was the hot topic of the sixties. We were in a cold war with the Soviets, and after Yuri Gagarin blasted into the atmosphere, even orbited the earth, it was clear we were behind. President Kennedy said we were going to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and we did. Today we can’t even reach Biden’s goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4th, talk about a can’t do nation.

And if you were alive back then, you know there was an emphasis on science and math. Hell, there was the new math! All this rewriting of history that America has gone soft, as if STEM studies were a revolution… No, college changed. It used to be a well-rounded education, of liberal arts, preparing you for life, which is both short and very long. Today college is a glorified finishing school, a respite of drinking, drugging and partying in  A level accommodations before you’re released into the real world where you fight to have the same level of accoutrements, and frequently fail.

Boomers were striving for excellence. The goal was to be atop the pyramid. For the Millennials it’s about fitting in, being a member of the group, and the end result is America has become tribal, and those still focused on the top have become billionaires and lorded their power over the rest of us. And it’s as hard as going from the back of the grid to the front, from P20 to P1, you can’t do it in the Haas car, and you can’t do it if you don’t have a college degree, know the right people and…don’t tell me about the exceptions, they’re like wining the lottery, they say someone emerges victorious, but I’ve never known a winner.

So on July 23, 1962 I remember sitting in front of the television, to see pictures transmitted from Europe via Telstar, starting with the Eiffel Tower, sent in real time earlier in the day. Yes, news outlets had the ability to time shift, to record and play back later, but this wasn’t even conceivable at home, we had to wait fifteen years for VCRs, and most people couldn’t afford them until the eighties.

Now back in 1962, it had been fewer than twenty years since most of our parents had come back from overseas. Europe and Asia were closer then they are today, despite Apple and its competitors constructing all their devices in China, despite the influence of Ibiza and dance music on our national culture. You could fly to London in six hours from New York and…you can still fly there in six hours, for a minute there was an SST, the Concorde, but that was ultimately sidelined and the planes got bigger, but not any faster. And if you made it to Europe you could live like a king for very little, that was the power of the dollar.

As for “Made in Japan”? That was a label for dreck. It wasn’t until Sony convinced us that their electronics were superior, and Toyota did the same thing with automobiles thereafter, that Japan was seen as a powerhouse. I still won’t buy an American car, never ever, except for maybe a Tesla, then again build quality is notoriously poor. Old habits are hard to break, especially when your Asian automobile breaks down so little.

Europe was far away. If you happened to go there, you never called home, never ever. You employed Aerograms, thin pre-stamped letters that you could fill up with writing that would reach home within the week. And there certainly were no cell phones.

So back in 1962, the concept of watching something in real time from Europe was a novelty, a breakthrough, an accomplishment that helped lead us to where we are today. Yes, the military industrial complex gave us not only Tang, but the internet. If only they’d stop building the army of yore and focus on today’s digital world, our power would be maintained. Russia is a nearly bankrupt autocracy, financially it’s a disaster, but when it comes to technology, it’s a free for all pushing the envelope. In America, dumb celebrities blame Apple for hacks when the truth is they used passwords no better than “1234” and expected privacy. Then again, most of the younger generation has sacrificed privacy, and Apple enables it and Mark Zuckerberg blows a gasket. Not only can no American ever lose their job, impeding progress, but corporate sovereignty must be preserved, even though Facebook triumphed by pushing aside MySpace.

And I’ve been thinking about the years going by. Because a lot of the signposts in my life were seen fifty years ago. And to younger generations that’s not only history, they don’t know it. Has the average Gen-Z’er, never mind Millennial, even heard of Telstar? Never mind the song with the same name?!

So I’m sitting there in front of the flat screen pissed some jerk e-mailed me the result of today’s Formula 1 race before I watched it. This isn’t the old days where you wake up in the middle of the night to watch TV shows in real time, there’s not even a Thursday or Friday or Sunday night lineup that’s must see TV, it’s all on your DVR, if it isn’t on demand nearly instantly thereafter. HBO Max may dribble out their series, but at least they put the TV shows on the service right after they’ve aired.

So I set the DVR for the French Grand Prix…and now it was ruined. I guess I can’t check my e-mail on Sunday mornings anymore, even though we all live to check our feeds.

So I pulled up the recording and they showed a bunch of buildings on a hill and it was clear, they were in France. And that titillated me. Like my old buddy Billy Gibbons says, it’s all about traveling, it inspires you. Want to be creative, want to have ideas pop into your head? Go somewhere! The more foreign the better, especially where you don’t know the language, you’ll no longer be passive, but fully alive.

And there’s a nine hour time difference. It’s already evening by time I pull up the race. There’s a whole ‘nother world over there, but now I’ve got a peek into it. Made me want to go.

As for the race…

People had told me Paul Ricard would be boring. And there were no crashes. And the truth is I didn’t watch absolutely every minute, I fast-forwarded with an eye on the leaderboard, to see if it changed.

But I knew who was gonna win. 

And this was a race based on strategy. The number of pit stops.

And the quality of the cars. Lewis Hamilton said he couldn’t pit again because he had no chance against the Red Bulls, they were faster in the straights.

So, you had the cars, the tires and ultimately sportsmanship.

And like today in America, there were people in the stands. But everybody in the pits, everybody associated with Formula 1, was wearing a mask. There’s got to be a regulation. As for vaccination…. You’re not going to be able to participate, as a crew member, never mind a driver, in the Dutch Grand Prix unless you’ve gotten the jab. As for fulfillment of this requirement… In Bahrain vaccinations were available for everybody, but the Formula 1 teams were fearful of getting negative PR for jumping the line. And some of the U.K. crew members are so young, it wasn’t their time yet in their home country. Optics matter. Choices matter. But not in the U.S., where you can be of a tribe and never encounter the truth, never mind a conflicting opinion.

So did you miss a lot if you missed today’s race? No, not unless you’re truly a fan of racing. This was not a hellzapoppin’ affair.

But if you tuned in, you got a peek into how the rest of the world lives.

And it looks pretty good.