Thomas W.P. Slatin

One of the more interesting questions asked of me recently was, what is the best invention of the 20^th century?  Despite the fact that during the 20^th century there have been major advances in medicine, space exploration, and in our understanding of the planet Earth, one invention stands out in particular as helping to make my life worth living.

This invention?  The Cup Holder.  Such a simple device, yet so versatile and useful, and amazingly, uses no electricity.  Who would have thought that a hollow cylindrical object would become so wide spread and commonplace in just under a decade.

Back in the days of my childhood, when I was just a little Tom, my father drove a car with no cup holders.  During those days, a cup holder was something that was not seen in cars, let alone anywhere.  It wasn’t until my father had a series of minor accidents with the car that we purchased a new one in 1991.  I can clearly recall looking through the manual for the car to see what kind of gadgets and goodies it came equipped with, when I opened to the page that mentioned that this particular model was equipped with two cup holders.

Long and behold, directly below the in-dash cassette player (state-of the art in those days), was a narrow strip of plastic with the word pull written across it.  Upon pulling on this narrow strip of black plastic, I noticed that the strip was actually the front support beam of a flat sheet of plastic, complete with two large holes drilled through it, each at a diameter of approximately 2.5 inches.

Intrigued, the next time I took a ride in the car, I brought along a can of soda.  Without thinking, I casually placed the can into one of the holes.  When I looked down again, I noticed that the soda was no longer in the cup holder, instead it was on the floor sideways.  Unfortunately, I had already opened the can and taken a sip; the remainder of the soda in the can had now poured itself out into the new carpeting.  Apparently at this stage in the cup holder development, the engineers were so excited that the prototype cup holder had been sent to the manufacturing line before a bottom could be added.  It was not until some years later that cup holders were able to hold objects that weren’t cone-shaped.

Today, the cup holder has come full-circle.  The car I currently drive has 5 cup holders, but there have been plans to add some in the near future as the need arises.  Not only are there cup holders in my car, but I have noticed that in recent years they have been reproducing in massive numbers.  On a recent outing, one of the cup holder offspring migrated to my kayak, and two others ran away from home to become cup holders in two canvas folding chairs Angie and I take on camping trips.  There’s even talk that a cup holder is going to add itself to my new walk-behind lawn mower, but I haven’t seen any out on the move.

Call me crazy, but all these cupholders reproducing and placing themselves in very strategic locations in my daily life seems to be a conspiracy among owners of beverage companies.  Call me crazy, but commercial beverages are the wave of the future, and cup holders are taking up rank to ensure their absolute success, because there is nothing worse than spilling that delicious drink.

Posted under Uncategorized