Open Writing

It is November 1996.

I had never been interested in buying a computer, although my youngest son had been very much involved with learning about them since he decided at the age of fifteen that was where his future lay.

That was twenty-three years ago and I can remember him writing to a company asking them to send him a piece of very thin tubing.
He told me it was a piece of fibre optic he needed for a school project he was working on. He was excited when the package arrived with the postman and he showed me how light went down the tube and could be seen at the end of the tip.

Fascinating, I thought, but I really didn’t understand what it was all about.

Gordon came home from school one day wanting to share the knowledge he had gained about the ‘Black Hole’. I could sense his excitement as he told me about it and I wanted so much to understand and be a part of this new knowledge he was trying to share with me, but it was all beyond my comprehension at that time.

Now the years have flown by all too quickly. My son is thirty-eight and has done well in the career he chose. Married, with two children, he has been able to offer a good style of living in his career as a Systems Analyst and I am proud of his success. He knew what he wanted at fifteen, foresaw the future of computers and made them his career.

These years have also seen a change in my life and I married again and went to live in New Zealand and now live on The Gold Coast of Australia.

Like so many people, I have always been interested in any new piece of technology as it became available, and also, like many people, I had accumulated all the gadgets that are supposed to make life easier and save time.

To name just a few, there was the food processor, the juice extractor, the coffee machine, the cappuccino machine, and one to make froth on the top.

The blender, a crêpe machine, the sandwich maker, the electric crock pot, and let’s not forget, the electric can opener that could open five hundred cans in a minute (so it said on the instruction sheet).

Now I ask you, we are just two people, so when would we ever have need to open so many cans at once?

Still I had to have one, for I thought at the time I was going to save time and how much easier it would make to my life. It was not long before the electric can opener was shut away in the cupboard with many other ‘can’t-live-without, make-life-easier’ gadgets, and the old hand-operated can opener was dug out from the box in the garage and returned to its rightful place in the kitchen drawer.Of course, there was the latest stereo system. I thought about that.
We really could do with a twin cassette player. We could then tape all those old records we never listen to, and give them away to friends. That way, at least we would be able to keep copies of all those tapes we never listen to.

What do you say? Shall we buy one?

I was constantly asking my husband these questions as the television and newspapers advertised these great new products.
Now who could resist the latest CD player? The one that plays five CDs at a time. We would be able to have hours of continuous music, and of our choice. Wouldn’t that be really wonderful?

Well we did buy one and it was great - for a while - till I found I was too busy to change the discs and the same music was heard, over and over again.

By this time, we had so many electrical appliances there was no room in the kitchen cupboard for our pots and pans. Cupboards were bulging, and labour-saving kitchen items were in cupboards situated low down. They were too big to leave on the top of the kitchen bench as they took up too much space in our smaller house, and they were too tall and too heavy to go on to higher shelves.
That meant we had to bend down to get them, and lift them up to use them.

It became easier to use a fork for whisking, and the old-fashioned potato masher taken from the kitchen drawer, which required no effort.

One day, we decided it was time to make a big decision. We had to be ruthless and make more room. Our ‘ Can’t-live-without, time-saving-gadgets’ just had to go. We were beginning to discover that we could live very well without most of them.
We sold some for next to nothing at a garage sale. Some had stopped working ages ago and had been waiting to be repaired.
They were taking up valuable space and were really not worth the cost of repair, so out they went.

Back and forth to the tip we went. We tried hard to give away things that were working almost new and in good order. We were sure they would be gratefully received but, to our surprise, no one wanted them.

“We had a job to give them away also,” we were told by our friends. “Our children only like the latest colour!”

So they went to the ‘Salvos’, and we decided from then on we would not buy any more gadgets. No more spending money, filling the house with gadgets which were supposed to save us time and so make our lives easier.

As we are retired, we have more time now for many things which we could not do before. Added to which, our appetites are smaller than they used to be and so we need less time cooking. We also have to be careful how we spend our money. As we are no longer earning, life has had to change in many ways.

So, you tell me, who in their right mind, retired and watching their expenses would contemplate buying a computer? Only someone who had more money than sense and that certainly was not me, I was sure about that. It was the last thing in my thoughts and from what I had seen they were far too expensive and way out of our reach.

No! We had been through all that and we were not going to get caught up in buying new gadgets again! So, Hooray! Here was a new gadget which left me cold and with absolutely no desire to own.
I just was not interested and no way was I going to be tempted.
At last, I was in control, or so I thought.

Our friend, Danny, an artist, began to expound the wonders of a computer, as he had just finished a course at the ‘Tech’.

"The prices have come down such a lot now," he said, "Come and see the artwork I am doing and, if you like, I will teach you. I can send you to the place where I bought my computer. They will give you a good deal and look after you. Look, Lorraine, I tell you, it would be great for you, and I know you would get a lot out of it."
I listened and wondered, and I observed the wonderful things Danny was able to do with his Corel Draw Program, and I was fascinated and very impressed.

I found using the mouse was hard though and I could not position it easily. I did not think I would ever be able to click the mouse and move things about the screen the way Danny did. It was all very impressive and intriguing , but really not for me and I was pleased to see I had finally reached the stage when there was nothing I needed, wanted, or could be tempted to buy.

Well how wrong I was!