Sometimes, when I look back through the years, the memories are so vivid, I feel I’m right there. Great times, crummy times, sad times, and even some times when nothing at all seems to be happening. It doesn’t seem to matter. I still feel like I’m right there with you. I know you can’t see or hear me in these moments, but I wonder sometimes if you can still sense my presence. In fact, lately I’ve begun to question whether or not these are memories at all, or if I’ve stumbled instead upon the secret of time travel. And maybe, after all is said and done, that’s what remembering is…a way to travel through time. And if one can travel to the past by re-membering, maybe one can travel to the future by pre-membering. After all, there is so much I’d like to tell you about the future that awaits you, but how great would it be for you to…you know…Pre-member it personally!

Hmmm…I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Right now you’re sitting up in your bed looking out the screen window on a hot and still summer night. Occasionally a mosquito lands on the screen and you send it on its way with a flick of a finger. There are chirping crickets outside and a dog is barking somewhere. Sometimes, despite the lateness of the hour, even the taunting laughter of children can be heard, and when that happens it feels awful, doesn’t it? That sense of being left out. You were outside earlier when it was still twilight. And this was the evening when you asked Dad to point out the Wisconsin Gas Company Weather Flame.

The Flame atop the Gas Company building in downtown Milwaukee has mesmerized you since you first heard of it on television. The teardrop shaped structure would be lit up in different colors depending on the weather forecast. The Gas Company explained the system like this: “When the flame is red, it’s warm weather ahead! When the flame is gold, watch out for cold! When the flame is blue, there’s no change in view. And a flickering flame means snow or rain.” On TV you learned that this colossus could be seen up to 30 miles away, and that prompted you to ask Dad how far we were from downtown. “Twelve miles or so,” he told you, so naturally you thought it would be clearly visible from your very back yard in suburban West Allis. When you learned this meant only that it would be visible to ships 30 miles offshore on Lake Michigan, you were disappointed and a bit embarrassed. Once again the world was revealing its true immensity.

Today, in the distant future the Weather Flame is still with us, although the building no longer belongs to the Gas Company. Still, you are destined to carry the memory of this icon forward with you into the future, and one day, when asked to pick and illustrate a cherished city landmark for the Greater Milwaukee Committee, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Maybe someday, when I figure out how to help you pre-member the future, I’ll take a trip back to Milwaukee and let you see it for yourself.

“Blue Steady (Some Things Never Change)” 1989  John T. McCarthy, Jr.   8-color silkscreen