Steppin’ Back In Time On The Internet
Ever wonder what it would be like to step back in time? Really, just step into a sportsman’s time machine like in the old sci-fi movies and…viola!! There you are back in the heyday of some long-past sportsman era. Maybe you would have chosen to duck hunt back in the days when the birds literally filled the skies. Maybe you would have tagged along with some Adirondack trappers who lived a rugged life as the filled the fur shed. Or perhaps you would’ve chosen to join some land explorers as they discovered a very scenic, yet rugged new world in North America.
Well, whatever your dreams might be…I hate to tell you but you’re outta luck here. Yep, sorry to be the harbinger of bad news…but there’s no such magical time machine and the only way to re-live many of these experiences is to do so while living vicariously through the pages of a good book.
But did you know there is a way to use the Internet to go back in time and not have to rely on your imagination? That’s right…stick with me here and I will show you how to step into the Internet time machine to explore history…if only history during the past ten years or so.
My neighbor the attorney once warned me never to put anything on the Internet. Of course, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I blog almost daily…or he would have really become disenchanted with my world wide web activities. In fact, this neighbor went on to tell me that whatever a person puts on the Internet will someday come back to haunt them. Just look at all the politicians it has already ruined, he postulated. Hmmmm….
Of course, I have no aspirations to ever go into politics. But maybe old Frank does have a good point. The words, pictures and other content we place on the web seemingly does become a permanent record of our activity. Case in point…take a look at this:
Here’s a screen shot of what www.Cabelas.com customers saw when they logged on to the Internet back in October of 1996 — almost a decade ago. Of course, most of us are probably familiar with how the website looks today:
On today’s website it boasts of an online shopping experience of over 150,000 products. Essentially, it is an electronic catalog of virtually any product a person could ever need or want pertaining to the outdoors. But, it wasn’t always that way. Back in 1996 if you were lucky to be browsing the Internet to see the first screen shot (top) and then clicked on products…guess how many products were featured on Cabela’s 1996 web site? A few hundred, maybe a few thousand top sellers? Nope! You had a choice of only four (4)…count them…just four products:
You could purchase the new Cabela’s Chuck Adams-designed Super Slam Tree Stand, a Cabela’s Field Coat, some Cabela’s Outfitter Series Boots, or some Cabela’s Professional Traveler Luggage. That’s it! And there was no online shopping cart. Each of these products had item numbers with a toll-free phone number you needed to call just to place that order.
I guess you could say times have sure changed, huh? Wonder how I did this? Check out: The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. This nifty website will allow you to go back and review cached web files from different periods of time. It doesn’t work perfect—sometime the pictures won’t all load, for instance, but it is neat to see how the Internet has progressed over the years. Check out a few of your favorite web sites and discover what you might have missed over the years.
Indeed, it appears if you publish something on the Internet it most definitely becomes a permanent record for the world to view, and view, and view. Heck, you can even go back and look at the old look of the Sportsman’s Blog site…and that is, indeed, a scary thought. 
© 2006 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.