Whole Foods Space Ship

Whole Foods Space Ship
Originally uploaded by hezcatt.

Yesterday I went to Whole Foods in Palo Alto to feed my emotional insecurity. I needed bread and I needed bread fast! As I was standing in line at the register, I was staring off and up into space, and when I focused, I realized I was looking at the strangest picture ever.

Whole Foods is housed in what used to be a Ford Dealership in the 1950's, and is called the Paddleford Buidling, at the corner of Emerson and Homer. The picture I was looking at was a painting, showing the building as it was when it was first built, with lots of brand new Ford cars parked on the street. Above the building in the sky is, what can only be, spaceships.

I am competely confused by this picture. Why would the artist include spaceships? Aside from the obvious indication that it was showing the Ford dealership was modern and up to date and perhaps even "futuristic." What I don't get is, the UFOs used in the picture are typical "alien" spaceships, or at least what people in the 50's percieved as being alien. These aren't homeland UFO's!

Whenever I see something like this it reminds me of a short story I once read called The Gernsback Continum by William Gibson. What has stuck with me all these years is a phrase "the future that never happened." There are tons of ad campaigns from the 50's era depicting people doing futuristic things, driving futuristic vehicles and living in and with futuristic items. This is what people of the 50's thought the future would be like and here we are in the 2000's and none of it ever came true (or at least the design aspect of it).

It's just fascinating, really.