is working on an idea for "snap-on electric lights", to which Sarah comments "no more kerosene, no more gas" will be needed to illuminate rooms. She also shows her new "wash-day marvel" that helps her do laundry in five hours, instead of two days, and she needs to get the laundry off the line before it starts raining. John initially denies that it is about to rain as his lumbago hasn't acted up, but is immediately proven wrong. Shortly after, the family's son, James, begins to talk from the right room and is scolded for using his father’s Stereoscope without permission. James is watching Little Egypt dancing the "Hootchie-Cootchie". John comments that she is going to be the star of the upcoming World's Fair, and that James better put the Stereoscope away before his mother finds it. As John and James finish talking, John tells talks about owning "one of those new talking machines", after which, the family’s grandmother appears on the left room, having fallen asleep while listening to the phonograph. John's attention is then drawn to a room on the right, where his daughter, Patricia, is getting ready to go to a Valentine’s Day dance on the other side of town. John explains that she will be taking one of the new "horseless trolleys", before telling her that she better be home by 9 o'clock. He then mentions he's going to take one of the said trolleys downtown to have a root beer, which he explains is just a sarsaparilla with a new name. Act 2: 1920s The second act is set in the "Roarin' Twenties". John is once again sitting in his kitchen, this time on a smaller kitchen chair on Independence Day. Wires and new electric machines are all over the room. He says things have changed a lot in the last twenty years. He proceeds to tell guests the new accomplishments of the era, such as Charles Lindbergh about to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, sports stadiums being built all over the United States, regarding Babe Ruth as the country's best baseball player, advertisements for a film, where Al Jolson will talk and sing, electric starters replacing cranks in automobiles, and travel time from New York to California in three days. John then tells guests that Thomas Edison has brought electricity to his home, after which, the electrical appliances all turn on at the same