Cars are nice, but if they had pianos inside them they’d be even better. It’s 2018, a time of cutting-edge revolution, and no one has yet thought to put a piano in a car? I’m not talking about concert-grade Yamaha or anything, although maybe there’s room for those on some of the fancier coaches. Just a simple 88-key keyboard is all I’m asking. Maybe it can even fold in the middle for easy transport.

Then again, I’m often disappointed by what cars have not been able to integrate in the many centuries they’ve been around. We can’t simply leave something as it is, when we could be making it better! I know little about car development, so whenever I book a car service near Elwood I make sure to ask the mechanics. One would hope they know all there is to know about what they’re putting in cars next, so I have my list of questions ready.

“Coffee machines, how about those? No coffee machines…then what about deep fryers or plumbed in bathrooms? Space issues? Then there must be plans for a slide-out sewing machine, something people must need on long journeys? None of that either.”

The conversations are more or less the same. Greater engine power, more efficient fuel usage, and something called hydro-electric. I don’t know. But it doesn’t seem like cars are getting new amenities any time soon. Perhaps that would complicate the life of a mechanic too much. I’ve been to play of car servicing garages that are open near Malvern and further afield. None of them have piano tuners on staff, nor do their have people selling fabric, or even plumbers.  Perhaps the industry as a whole simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with demand, especially since piano tuners are so hard to find nowadays.

Suppose I’ll have to settle for my car driving me to a place where I can play the piano, instead of doing it in transit like they all imagined we’d be doing way back in the 1920s.

-Francis