Every so often a little brightly colored flying machine passes over our house. That man up there is happily puttering along with the greatest of ease. When I looked it up I discovered that machine was called an Ultralight. I wonder if a time machine would look something like that Ultralight. I think it would be wonderful if someone could invent a time machine that really worked. Once in awhile I used to see a show on Twilight Zone where someone would travel to the past or to the future. I'd love to get on a time machine and zip off into yesterday or tomorrow. Of course I'd want to control that machine because I wouldn't want to live in the past, but I would like to see the things that were happening when my parents and grandparents were young. I often wonder what a person who lived in 1897 would think if they were suddenly transported to 1997. There have been many changes.

People often speculate about the future. They use their imagination to create an entirely different world than what we have today. The creator of the comedy "The Jetsons" used his imagination and showed the future with families living in space homes, robot maids, robot dogs and flying machines.

British Author George Orwell in the year 1949 published a novel entitled "1984" where he took an imaginary trip into the future. The book was about a fictitious state of the year 1984 where freedom of thought and action had completely disappeared. Children were taken from parents and no love relationships were allowed. Posters were seen with captions of "Big Brother is Watching."

If you watch some old reruns on TV you might hear them telling about how wonderful it is going to be in the 1980's and 1990's and how easy life will be. People surmised that we would only work 10 to 20 hours a week. Everyone thought that as the 21st century rolled around life would be something like the Jetsons. We would travel to space in our little flying machines as easy as we travel to the next town. Robots would wait on us and do all of our cleaning, food would be served at the press of a button.

The Jetsons had a telephone and they could see each other as they talked. We thought in the future there would be TV's on phones so we could see who was calling. I wasn't sure I'd like that, what if I was being lazy and was lounging around in my P.J.'s and robe?

In the early 1950's my husband and I saw the movie "Destination Moon" at the La Junta Drive In Theater. I felt the movie was too far out, it was silly and I made fun of it. There soon followed a lively discussion (argument?) My husband felt sure that man would walk on the moon someday. I was positive it would never happen.

"God will never let man go to the moon," I declared.

"I think we're going to see the day when man walks on the moon," he claimed.

"If God wanted us to go the moon," I was getting angry. "He would have given us wings."

"That's what they said before airplanes," he laughed. "We don't have wings but man is flying all over the world."

Well, here it is, nearly 50 years later and we've had some changes. Some of them are good, but a lot of those wild fancies didn't come true. When I was employed in the courts we had two President day holidays in February. Now in 1997 instead of having two President days in February, there's only one. Folks aren't working 10 or 20 hours a week, they're still toiling 40 hours. Automatic clothes washers have replaced wringer washers; we have dishwashers to save hands, TV dinners to save cooking, freezers to save food. Clothes dryers have replaced clotheslines, permanent press clothes have replaced irons and ironing boards. There are no movie screens on our telephones, although the living room has a black box called a TV set where people sit and stare.

I haven't seen any posters that warn that "Big Brother is Watching." 1984 has come and gone and George Orwell's 1984 didn't materialize. I'm glad.

But we don't live in the Jetson age yet. I don't own a little flying machine that takes me to outer space. I'm still driving a car. I don't have a robot to clean house (I wish I did) and real food still has to be cooked on a stove.

The biggest surprise to me is that in that 50 years of time man did walk on the moon. I didn't think it would ever happen, but I was wrong. Now I'm waiting for more developments. After all if man can walk on the moon I don't see why I can't look forward to having a personal robot and one of those nifty little flying machines to putter around in. A multicolored ultralight would do.