Musings: In the Year 2525

A few weeks ago my fellow columnist George Epstein wrote about Barry Maguire’s 1965 ballad “Eve of Destruction.” As a 9-year-old in the summer that song was a huge hit, it has stayed with me ever since as something of a warning of what might be.

Of course the mid-Sixties were in the midst of the rising tide of the Cold War, so bad things were looming out there that were far beyond the realm of a child’s imagination; even as we swam in the lake after a day of playing with our cars, making ambitious new roads in the rich and fragrant dirt of my grandfather’s flower gardens.