Well, obviously my face cream isn’t living up to its promises!
My defensive response to my son’s question was to point out that the Wright brothers and lesser known Richard Pearse, a Temuka farmer, battled out who was the first to fly well over 100 years ago. (Just in case it comes up in a pub quiz, it appears Richard pipped the brothers at the post, flying in 1902 v December 1903.)
Going back to my son’s question, it made me realise that technology does have a way of ageing us. Generation X, Y, and Z doesn’t mean a lot when you compare it to gramophone, record player, portable stereo, walkman, iPod, iPhone… A few of those are before my time in case you’re wondering, although I do remember the excitement of being given a walkman for a (to remain unspecified) birthday. They are the tangible memories woven into the every day or the moments of new discoveries that mark our lives.
This was particularly apparent recently when the children were given a disposable camera as part of a birthday party scavenger hunt reward. Almost as one, the kids ripped into the packages, to then stare in some bemusement at the cameras.
“I can’t see the picture.”
“Why isn’t the button working?”
“You can delete them right?”
“How do you get the picture out?”
How things have moved on! While the instructions were pretty straightforward, it was harder to describe the agonising indecision of choosing between the five day (or, for me, more like two weeks as we didn’t get into ‘town’ very often) or, the excessively priced, one hour photo developing. Then the anticipation and crushing disappointment when only 16 of the 24 photos were printed and in focus.
We haven’t finished the film yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing how many photos we get of the sky or my husband’s right nostril!
Tough Mother 