The Home Office Chronicles 3

WOW

While cleaning out a file cupboard this morning I ran across the WOW filed under W. It was a copy of a copy of a copy and time had not been kind but I could distinctly see the image of the Big Ear Radio Telescope covering an area the size of three football fields in Delaware Ohio, 30 miles north of the Ohio State campus in the late 1950s. The photo copy was given to me by the late John Morrow. He, my grandfather and my uncle had helped construct it.

I’ve kept the photo copy as a reminder of my relationship to the WOW; the first sound heard when the telescope was turned on. WOW, the sound from outer space as interpreted by the space ear on Planet Earth. WOW, the word from then on used in response to the inconceivable, the incomprehensible, the astonishing.

I emailed my sister to tell her I had found the WOW and I would scan and email it to my niece in a minute – Wow. I twittered to my niece to look for it in her email and add it to her Facebook – WOW. I Googled EAR and found a web page dedicated to the Ohio State Big Ear Radio Telescope – Wow. I emailed the link to several relatives and friends and I accomplished all of that within the time it took to drink my morning coffee –WOW!

WOW was somehow replaced by Awesome. I prefer the simplicity of the WOW to the mouth jarring Awesome. Frankly, the only time I have used the word Awesome was when I first looked down into the Grand Canyon. I use the WOW daily, I don’t know why. Perhaps I just grew up with the WOW. WOW yelled out from advertising in the 1960’s. WOW fell from everyone’s lips then, it was often said under the breath or shouted with arms flying wildly or laughed or chuckled. It was the appropriate response for any surprising revelation, simple, easy to say and succinct.

I think Awesome will soon die a natural death. It has hemorrhaged its meaning. It is a borrowed word from the distant past originating from the word “awe” used to describe fear which will be returned to the dictionary, to its appropriate definition on a yellowed page. It is too cumbersome to survive on our tired lips much longer. WOW will survive, certainly for my generation and maybe a few more. WOW is still valid, still fresh, still alive. WOW still carries all its original surprise echoed from that first day we received it from space. WOW was first blared not by human lips but by a radio telescope, a thing, an instrument of advanced technology, a machine of space exploration. WOW.

I filed the WOW back under W after scanning it. I shut down Google and the computer, checked my cell phone for text messages and poured another cup of coffee from the coffeemaker that may be smarter than I am. In a while I’ll climb into a car that has more computers than I want to get to know, through traffic-sensitive traffic lights past China Lake Naval Weapons Center where who-knows-what is talking to who-knows-where. I’ll sit at a desk with expanded monitor, laser printer and several other electronic devices that manage me and I’ll drink another cup of coffee from yet another very smart coffeemaker. WOW and WOW.

The Big Ear Radio Telescope was destroyed in 1998 to make way for a golf course. 

Wow.