My youngest son spoiled me and gave me a battery powered cordless Dyson vacuum cleaner for Christmas - I love it! The same week my 12-year old grandson struggled to understand why you would ever use a crank handle to start a car.
These two things caused me to think back over the big changes in my home life that I have experienced.
When I was aged 7, we moved into a brand new State House. It came with a box of shrubs to be planted and my Father built the garage, the front fence, and laid the driveway. He also planted the lawns and gardens. Today tenants expect all of that to be done for them. Later he put on his beret to cover his bald head and mowed the 8th of an acre lawns with a hand mower, while my Mother tended to the front garden flowers.
The house had a “Copper” to wash the clothes. (If we were naughty we had to sit on the Copper to eat our tea - I made it quite a few times because I talked too much). On Mondays, my Mother used to fill the Copper with cold water and light up the fire under it. Then we'd boil the sheets and towels in it, put them through a hand wound wringer to a rinsing tub, then Bluebag rinse the sheets again to make them whiter. She would wash the rest of the weeks washing regardless of the weather and hang it on the clothes line to dry. The sheets and towels were ironed before use! Later she got one of those washing machines with the wringer on the machine but you still had to use a tub to rinse the clothes. If you accidentally got too close to the wringer your hand or hair would get caught! Imagine living in a house without a washing machine and drier today.
.jpg)
Milk in glass bottles with cardboard lids was delivered to the bottom of the letter box and unsliced bread was delivered to the top half of the letter box. It was fun to collect the fresh bread and pick off some tasty warm bits on the way inside. The grocer collected a list on Tuesdays and delivered the groceries on Thursdays. A greengrocer drove around the streets in a green truck and you could buy your veggies from him. Not a lot has changed except grocery shopping is now done on line and no personal contact need be made.
We had a valve radio and used to huddle around it to listen to the news, music, Aunt Daisy (she memorably announced one day that she had sunlight shining up her back passage) and serial dramas. Our telephone was attached to the wall and on a party line. We did not have television, i-Pads, cell phones or e-readers but we did talk to each other a lot.
Our first refrigerator was a cause for great celebration. I did not have to get on my bike and go to the dairy on Sunday’s at lunch time for the ice cream to go with the post roast dinner desert as my mother could now make it herself using condensed milk.
Today housework is easier, cars are more reliable and faster, battery power takes the hard work out of most house hold activities and non verbal personal contact is constant.
Are we any happier? Are we any healthier or personally richer? I think not but I do not think we are any better or worse off than we were before. Our world is just different. What changes will our grandchildren see?