Susie slid into the passenger seat of Jimmy’s jalopy.
Her boyfriend closed the door for her, then went around the vehicle and got behind the wheel. “What a fun assignment.”
“Yes,” Susie said. “I never dreamed that Mr. Conklin had such an adventurous streak.”
“Imagine, sending us off on a scientific treasure hunt.”
“What better way to discover the modern wonders all around us.”
“Do you have the camera?”
“Right here.” Susie took the gadget out of her handbag and placed it on her lap. “It’s the same one we used when we attended that snapshot party last fall.”
“Perfect. What about the booklet?”
Susie’s practical handbag held more than just a camera. There was plenty of room for the pamphlet, which was the nucleus of their entire assignment. Titled, The Modern Wonders of the World, the cover featured a painting of an amphibious aircraft flying over a bridge and a ship.
“This brochure features twelve scientific marvels found in our world. While we don’t live near any of these famous landmarks, our task is to photograph a local equivalent of each one. Once the pictures are developed, we’ll present them to the class and explain their connection to the wonders in this book.”
“Neat,” Jimmy said. “We have an excuse to get out of the classroom and explore our town.”
“And we’re doing this together,” Susie wrapped a white gloved hand around his forearm. “That’s the best part of all.”
The teenage boy graced her with a bright smile. “It is indeed.” He turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life. “Where shall we go?”
Susie consulted the booklet. “The first wonder is an article about the Panama Canal.”
“Our town is far from a hub of maritime traffic.” Jimmy thought hard for a moment. “But they built a small lock system in the waterway between the river and the lake a few years ago. It makes it easier for pleasure cruisers to go back and forth.”
“Great,” Susie said. “Let’s go.”
They arrived at the locks and snapped their photo.
“Our skyscrapers don’t rise twelve hundred and fifty feet above the ground,” Jimmy pointed out, “but they’re pretty high. Let’s go downtown and pick one to photograph.”
Mission accomplished; the pair then needed to search for atelescope.
Susie had the answer. “There’s a small one at the Science Museum.”
“Great!”
They had just left the downtown area, heading for the west side of the city, when Susie, booklet in hand, asked Jimmy to pull over for a minute.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she replied. “But, after the telescope there’s an article about the Lincoln Tunnel.”
“So?”
“We’ll drive through a small tunnel on our way to the museum. We might as well snap a photo of that too.”
“Good idea.”
When both pictures were acquired, the pair sat on the steps of the museum and consulted the brochure.
“Our next wonder is a printing process called the Four Color Press.”
“This pamphlet is full of beautiful artwork,” Susie pointed out. “These illustrations must have been printed using this process. We could present this image to the class.”
“That’s too easy,” Jimmy said. “There’s a small print shop down the street from the school. Why don’t we give them a call? I’m sure they won’t mind if we took a photograph of their equipment.”
“Fantastic. We’ll set that up for tomorrow. As for the rest of today—” She turned the page and whistled. “Boulder Dam is certainly a marvel, but it’s also a problem, at least for us.”
“There’s no dam within a hundred miles of here. What could we substitute for such a mighty piece of construction?”
Susie wracked her brain, then the solution popped into her mind. “Do the rules say that a marvel has to be built by a human being?”
“The species of the builder is not specified.” Jimmy wrinkled his brow. “What are you getting at?”
“There’s a family ofbeaversconstructing their own version of a dam in the stream near our house. Why don’t we take a picture of that?”
“Such an ingenious idea. I love it!”
“Good. Now we only have to explore five more modern wonders.”
“This next one’s going to be simple.”
“Let’s just take a picture of my car radio,” Jimmy continued. “That qualifies.”
“Okay.” The pair returned to the jalopy. Susie attached the flash unit to her camera, before sliding inside the vehicle. Then she adjusted the focus on the lens. The image of the car radio, once blurry, sharpened within the viewfinder. Susie pressed the shutter button.
A blinding light filled the cab for a second, before fading away.
Jimmy blinked furiously, then laughed. “Why can’t they all be so easy?”
“There’s no challenge in that.” Susie put her camera down then opened the brochure. “Speaking of searching for modern wonders, how in the world are we going to find a Bathysphere?”
“The closest thing I can think of is the toy submarine my little sister plays with while in the bathtub,” Jimmy said.
“Let’s swing by my uncle’s auto body shop,” Jimmy said. “We just need a snapshot of him at work, then we’ll be done!”
“Wonderful!”
Once all the photographs were taken and developed, Susie arranged them on a poster board for easy viewing. Then she clipped the illustrations out of the Wonders booklet and created two beautiful collages to share.
They stood before the class and spoke with confidence about the photographs they took and the links between items found in their town, to the Modern Wonders built all around our world. Everyone laughed at the beaver photo, yet agreed it was an accurate substitution.
The class gave them a round of applause and their teacher gave them an A.
We’ll give them an A+ for such a fantastic tour of engineering marvels. It’s all thanks to GVS, Glorious Vintage Stuff!
