Get a proper education

 

There is a lot that you young readers visiting this Blog that you do not know about the past. How people like me lived in those days; the equipment we had at our disposal back then, and what life was really like. Here's a few selections.

This item is a mobile telephone. We had to carry it with us everywhere to receive and send messages to each other "on the go". It was large and clumsy to carry in your back pocket or jacket; but most people had a carrying case in the shape of a shopping bag. To call a friend you had to turn that circular thing round using different numbers because this telephone, unlike the ones you have today, did not have a screen or camera for you to send pictures of yourself to everyone.

This is how we used to send texts to each other. We had pre-cut pieces of paper on which we marked different alphabetical shapes with dark ink. When the ink dried we put the paper in a small wrapper called an envelope, and then we wrote the address of the recipient on it, and we put the envelope in a metal box in the street or shopping centre. Someone used to take each envelope and deliver it safely to each recipient. A little slower than today's texts, but it was more private and no one saw the dubious photos of yourself which people send by cellphone today.

The portable phone I showed above did not have the facility to play music; so we had this machine we carried with us as well. That circular thing on the platform is called a disc and somehow it contained the sound of people singing and music on it. So you had to carry the music machine with that big flower shaped thing at the top, as well as a selection of discs with you wherever you went to have music "on the go." I had to pay extra on the bus for this machine because it took extra room on the seat near me.

A bus was a long vehicle like the one above and people used to get in and be driven to pre-set destinations they wanted to go to. Just like your Mom and Dad taking you in the car but it was cheaper.

This old machine used to tell you what time it is. It did not have digital numbers that light up but those two pieces of metal used to go round and round and point to numbers to tell you what time it is. Young people in those days were very clever and soon learnt how to tell the time in these machines, and did not need a voice or a lit screen to tell them the time. These machines were too big to carry on your wrist, but we had them in our handbags with the portable telephone and music machine shown above.

And this is a portable radio. Not as easy to carry as today's electronic contraptions but we made do without much complaining and feelings of entitlements.

And this is Alexa, a young lady I knew back then. She may not have been as clever as the contraption you have at home with the same name; but she was much more entertaining!

And here's another thing I'd like to show you which you may not be familiar with.

This building is called a church. It's a place where many people used to go to and often discover God in their lives.

Life was certainly different back then, a little hard maybe, but we certainly got through.