Time Traveller

Time Traveller

The alarm sounded at 0415 hrs. The bland ABC announcer was just enough to get me out of bed as she went on about climate change and the cyclone in Queensland. Today was a sad day, my wife Maureen and I were taking our youngest daughter Katy to the airport for another stint in New Guinea. Katy has been on so many overseas stints (Nursing and Volunteering) that it was not that unusual but it was always sad when she was leaving. At least this time she was with a great partner TK.Melbourne Airport

We returned home later in the morning and I had the good fortune to be minding my Grandson Josef (7 years old) we sat to watch a DVD together –Back to the Future (Michael J Fox) Great movie. It got me thinking and pondering on what I had seen over my life time (I am 61) I mean the changes in technology and society. I will mention just a few mainly involving my day today.

 

Will compare 1964 to today: I was 12 and it is fifty years ago:

·      There was no radio alarms we only had wind up clocks and bell alarms.

·      There were only male announcers on radio and the ABC announcers spoke with a pommy accent.

·      We boiled our kettle this morning on a stove with natural gas. in 1964 had not discovered any  natural gas in Australia yet. We would light a combustion stove, or electric element, or a manufactured gas stove.

·      The radio was big and sat in the dining room transistors had just been invented but were not in Australia yet.

·      Today we drove to the airport in less than an hour down the freeway. There were no freeways in 1964. A trip from Bendigo where I lived then to Melbourne would take from three to four hours by car. I had been to Melbourne once when I was ten years old.

·      Phones were ceramic and black with silver buttons and ring dials. To make a long distance call was very expensive and involved going through multiple operators.

·      Some homes in Melbourne had TVs’ my mother would buy one this year the first one in our street. It was very expensive and was made in Australia.

·      The milk in our tea and the bread on our table was delivered to our home early in the morning, by men driving horse carts.

·      All our clothes were made in Australia we did not have may sets and we had a special clothes for Sundays and special events.

·      We did not wear trousers until we were confirmed or reach age (around 12) or go to work. We wore shorts. Men rarely wore shorts and always wore a hat outside as did women.

·      Big families of four or more were the norm.

·      Women rarely worked after they were married. My mother was an exception as my father had died when I was seven. There was no single mother’s pension but family, friends and the RSL, Legacy, the church and other organisations helped us.

·      We played in the street with all the other kids.

·      No one could afford to travel by aircraft except if you were very rich or worked for the government.

·      The airport was at Essendon and was about as big as a secondary high school and looked like one as well. I had not been to an airport and neither had any of my family in 1964. Aircraft held fifty or sixty people.

·      We had coffee and croissants this morning. Hardly anyone drank coffee in 1964 only Italians and migrants, croissants were only seen in the movies.

·      Terrorism had not been invented then so security was the local copper walking his beat around the neighbourhood. He dispensed justice at the end of his boot and knuckles. Security cameras and scanners had not been invented.

·      The weather was an unknown factor and we only had forecasts for one day ahead at most. They were not that accurate so local knowledge was the key. Air conditioners were not in use so buildings had to be built to allow for ventilation, shading and heating factors.

·      Climate change had not been invented or known about. The tracking of a cyclone was unheard of, satellites were not in use or been invented yet.

·      The only people we knew who had been overseas were the returned soldiers and those coming home from Vietnam.

·      Tea and cakes came in porcelain and cups with doilies. There was no throw away cups, plates or anything.

·      Plastic had been invented but was not in wide spread use.

·      Cars were made from steel, iron and chrome. Vinyl was the cover on the seats. Leather for the more expensive cars. Cars rarely did over fifty miles an hour. They sometimes had a radio in them. A lot of them still did not have blinkers.

·      DVD’s had not been invented we went to the movies at the cinema. There were four cinemas in Bendigo at that time.

·      There was a pub on every corner just about and they all had to close at six pm. Beer came in long neck bottles.

·      The ashes were played every four years, the players were amateurs. Same as the Olympics.

·      Our vegies, eggs and drinks came from our local area around Bendigo and were seasonal. We had never tasted; lychee, avocado, kiwi fruit, mango or many other things.

·      Gay was having a good happy time.

·      A lot of families went to local dances for their entertainment.

·      Houses were on average twelve squares.

·      Many houses were still not connected to sewage or water.

·      Men did not live long past sixty (The retirement age) My Grandfather Lou had just died at the age of sixty two.

·      Most men smoked but very few women. (Only the bad ones)

·      We went swimming in the local creek and the local swimming pool which had a sand bottom and no chlorination.

·      Mixed marriages were not encouraged (Catholics and Protestants) some jobs were closed to Catholics.

·      We were mostly Anglo-Celtic.

·      The Computer I am writing on is only a distant dream the first computers doing basic punch line work take up whole buildings and there were only a only a couple in Australia.

What a list I could go on and on but I will leave that to another time. It has been a great time for us, an exciting time. How fortunate have we been and are to share such a fortunate past and such an interesting future.

Family

I guess like Michael J Fox we are all time travellers of some sort.

 

John Condliffe

31.1.14