July Boggity Blog - Post #7: Your Children Wil Never Know What an Encyclopedia Is

I am of one of the last generations that will know published, hard cover encyclopedias. These publications were of a time where knowledge wasn't automatically at your finger tips. If you were sitting around with your friends, arguing about some random presidential facts (because that is of course what friends talk about when they get together) everyone would have to wait until someone went to the library to look up the fact in an encyclopedia. For those lucky few, they could even look up the fact in their own home's library. I don't believe many people owned their own encyclopedias, because they were expensive and they were a hassle to move.

My family inherited an encyclopedia set when I was a child. I remember using those books to look up information for school or just for my own amusement. For example, there was a section that included transparencies of the inside of the human body: skin, muscles, bones, organs. My weird self found this fascinating.

However, I was also aware to use the reference books with caution, because while it was the late 80's - early 90's at the time, our encyclopedia set was published in the early 60's. How old were they?  They had an entry for "Negros". Even as a kid, I remember reading that sections with shock and awe. I'm not sure if my parents will have them. I hope they do, because it is definitely a relic.

If you know my dad, you should ask him sometime about encyclopedias. He will go into a self-brag-story about how he would use his lunch time during high school to read sections of the encyclopedia. This is why he is now filled with random facts. Way to go Dad. You are so filled with knowledge (which I can easily pull up via the internet on my phone to prove you wrong). So I guess that makes me artificially smarter than you. So there.