a future we were offered

Remember all those fascinating illustrations we used to see in books as kids?  I don't mean just the ones we saw in comic books, but in other legitimate grown up magazines of our youthful days.  I even remember these kind of  cool futuristic illustrations gracing some of our Science text books.  I kid you not.

We remember the space race and seeing the first man on the moon.  As a kid, we were fed the idea that we were all probably going to get a crack at getting a job constructing some huge domed space facility on Mars.  I know, the future is never what we make of it.  It's all wild hunches.  I must say, even though mankind has accomplished many incredible feats, I am a little disappointed.  I really liked all those futuristic illustrations that  now seem so camp and silly.  That was one nifty looking future we had fed to us.