Looking Back By Doug Thwaites

Having lived 90 years and still with an active mind, I can recall vividly, events of years ago. If I go back 70 years to when I was a young man of 20, living in a world entirely different to that of today, I remember that I was having just as much enjoyment as now, with much less worries.

Having plenty of time to think back over my long life I begin to wonder if we are better off today. If all the things we take for granted today are really necessary. Of course what you never had you never miss. At that prewar period, life was wonderful and full. No worry about locking up your house, or going on a diet. Petrol was just over a shilling (10 cents) a gallon.

Living wage was about three pounds a week. I was driving a Singer Le Mans car with twin carburetors, bonnet tied down with a leather strap. I used to wear a Teddy Bear overcoat as they were called, synthetic fur, tied with a belt. There were no fears in those days, we partied and partied. I worked long hours and earned about five pounds a week so I was well off.

Radio was still in its early days. Mainly used for the news at night. No Television thank goodness. So we entertained ourselves. We had the cinema with black & white movies. Silent of course, but there was always music. The big cinemas had an Organ, which played in the interval while we drank our tea. We ate what we wanted, fat and all. The main cause of death in those days, according to the records was by an infection.

When I was at high school, once I got home and had a quick snack, it was off to the woods to play, cops and robbers or some similar strenuous game. No sitting in front of the Box, nibbling and becoming obese.

Shopping was very different in those days. No supermarkets, just the local grocer. In between getting the local gossip, we would wait while our sugar, or rice etc., would be weighed up and packed in a paper bag. Cheeses were there, in halves or smaller pieces of the whole cheese, still with the cloth on the outside. We would taste a piece before buying.

We took our container to get milk, which was kept in a large china bowl inside a glass cabinet. It had to be stirred before being ladled out, as it was raw milk with all the cream on top. Now most produce is wrapped in plastic and of course we pay more, because we have to cover the cost of packing, and the package. The two giants, Coles and Woolworths, sell most of the groceries that we need. The supply of food is becoming almost a monopoly.

It is considered that today the house must contain at least two televisions, VCR, DVD player, fridge, freezer, microwave, vacuum cleaner, and of course that stereo sound system. There are many more things available, coffee maker, coffee bean grinder, sandwich maker, toaster, Mixmaster, bread maker, electric jug. I could find a few more too. With all these labour saving devices surely we have more spare time, but no, the wife has to go to work too, to help pay for all these things. So she will need a car, more to pay for! Cars in those far off days were simple, just a means of getting from one place to another. No air-conditioning, no heater, and definitely no CD player, to distract the driver.

On Sundays I would take my mother for a drive. We would drive slowly along the roads, looking at the places we were passing. Now and then my mother would want us to stop so she could get out and look at someone’s garden, she was keen on flower gardening. Now you cannot drive slowly along a road, someone would either run into you or the sounds of horns would deafen you. It is not a pleasure driving now; more like a case of ‘Dodgems’

Now the roads are crammed with cars, and there is constantly a need to upgrade them to cope, with the thousands more cars that are to come. The world’s population keeps expanding. In Australia, we import people, so that they will need cars and homes, and thus provide employment for thousands. We manufactured about 485,314 cars last year, plus the imports, and imported about 146,000 people.

As the population increases, more land is needed to build homes on, which means less to grow food on. A disaster looms as more people means more food needed, yet less land will be available. All these extra cars on the roads have made traveling by car a risky business as the road toll increases. All those extra exhausts mean more pollution of the air that we breathe. The day when petrol runs out, will get closer as all the extra fuel is used.

When that happens, our cars will run on fuel cells, using water, which is split into Hydrogen and Oxygen. The fuel cell makes electricity while converting the Hydrogen. The waste product is water. Why are they not being mass-produced now? Well we have to use up the petrol first. The world runs on profit not environment care. Now let us look at Television. When it first came here, it was meant to entertain and educate. It has certainly educated people about crime, murder and the use of drugs and firearms.

No longer do parents have to have a talk to their children about the birds and the bees; they see it all on the screen. I consider it is a drug. People have lost the art of communicating and entertaining themselves. I moved to South Australia in 1960, as Television was about to start there. I found people got together at the weekend, and even sang songs and played the piano.

A few months later those pianos were being traded in on televisions. In SE Queensland we have five TV stations broadcasting 24 hours of the day. To find material for all these hours, masses of rubbish is shown, most unfortunately from America. The ABC and SBS for those lucky enough to receive it, show wonderful material. Many of the documentaries do educate and inform.

Another new wonder is the computer; simply it is a brain, which is much larger and faster than ours. But we have to give it the information first. It cannot think for itself. It can then be shared with the rest of the world through another wonder, the Internet. Now sending messages by Email have taken over from the post office, now referred to as snail mail.

I have a nephew in Calgary, Alberta; letters to him took five days to get there and five days to get back. Because of the time difference he is asleep when I am awake. I can send him an Email and get a reply back the next morning. But I still enjoy writing long letters to people. Luckily for the post office we can now pay most of our bills through them. Now digital cameras have arrived. I have one and like every thing else in life it has its good points and bad ones.

Now instead of taking pictures and having to wait for the roll to fill up, and then wait while it was processed, I can take a picture and have a print in five minutes. So film is not being used, thousand will lose their jobs in Kodak, although they make the camera?

So that is the whole point now, considering the good points and the bad and weighing up is it worth doing or using.

I had an infection during the last war and was given a piece of jelly to eat. That was the first use of Penicillin. The over use of anti-biotics have produced germs that are resistant to some, so there is a constant hunt for different ones. Although they have good points they also have bad ones, side effects they are called. So do all medical drugs. I must admit here that I am only alive now because of drugs. Anti-biotics kill the bad bugs, but also the good ones, which mean that our digestive systems are put out of order, and doses of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium must be taken to restore it.

There is a good side to living this long, I have had some enjoyable extra years, but there is a downside. Although my brain is as good as ever, my body is beginning to deteriorate, and unlike a man made object I cannot buy spares, and am too old for transplants. I know like everyone does that I must die sometime. I have had two scares and beaten them. I can no longer do the physical things I want to do, I can no longer wander around Australia, so I am confined, and awaiting what next will come along and try and knock me off my perch.

I have been accused of being pessimistic; no I am just looking at the truth.
The question of whether we are better off, well that doesn’t matter, as we cannot go back.

By Doug Thwaites