Changes

What changes have been significant in my life? Well, I learnt to drive first in a 1918 Ford 10 ton ex-army tray top truck which was literally held together with fencing wire and through the holes in the floor you could see the road whizzing (slowly) past underneath. Then I was upgraded to the family car at the time, a 1939 V8 Ford – long wobbly floor-mounted gear stick, long-shank foot pedals, button on the floor for dimming the headlights, no blinkers, aircon or radio but with running boards on the outside making it easier to hold the cream can on the way from the road to the dairy or for the ‘gate-opener’ to hold on for a ride up the long driveway. With the back seat removed, calves in corn bags were transported to the saleyards, but this necessitated a thorough clean out afterwards. The car was easily started using a button on the dashboard as we usually couldn’t locate the key – thanks to a family pet, a galah that had a penchant for hiding things.

This was traded (for 15 pounds) on a Ford single spinner ute which was a much more practical vehicle for the farm, as the cream cans and other ‘stuff’ could just be chucked in the back. Calves were still securely fastened into corn bags and rode in the back for their trip to the saleyards. This ute was used also to teach me how to do all kinds of mechanical repairs from simple tyre changes to a full engine rebuild – skills that came in very handy when I later purchased a Holden Kingswood, much to my Ford-loving father’s disgust.

The old spinner eventually gave way to a Falcon station wagon, followed by various other Fords of increasing grandeur and technology until I came to the little car I have today, what my sons call my ‘shopping trolley tardis’.

Without what I personally consider to be the single most world and life changing innovation, my little red car would go nowhere. That change is the advent of the computer. Without the chip in my car key talking to the computer in the car’s engine bay, my car will not start and without the computer working properly, it will not keep going. A flat battery stops me cold and the NRMA is called to the rescue. With my trusty old Kingswood, two minutes tinkering under the bonnet usually had me mobile again.

When I was at school, there was nothing. Maths calculations were done in the head or using the tables printed on the back cover of the exercise books. Multiplication and division, addition and subtraction were done using calculation sheets following the intersecting lines. Unfortunately, calculators became available just as I was leaving school. Adding machines immediately became a thing of the past and I doubt anybody under the age of 40 would recognise one today.

The simple calculator was improved and developed over the years and is now a necessary purchase for school. Mental arithmetic, once a fun part of maths lessons as a brain awakener, has long disappeared and my grandchildren are horrified at what children had to do as part of their normal lessons – use their brain power!

From the calculator it was a simple step to the computer which was once touted as taking up a whole room for one machine.

What do I think of the change? For me it has been both good and bad. I clearly remember (and am frequently reminded) stating to my daughter “you have a good brain, paper and pencils so you don’t need a computer” and where am I now? Here, helping teach other people how to use one.

I have found my computer to be invaluable in many ways – assignments when I was doing my Welfare Courses, contact with understanding friends in the wee small hours when my life fell apart, research when I needed answers and assistance with questions of all kinds and on all subjects. Small town libraries don’t have the scope of resources available in the big centres and my computer enabled me to tap in to libraries and universities all over the world, as well as discussion forums with some of the world’s top professionals. Many times I went to a forum, posted a question and received responses from professors and specialists in the medical, psychological and psychiatric professions that I would not otherwise have had access to in the big American Universities. “Google it” has become an accepted part of our language now and even young children know what it means.

On the negative side, computers have cost many people their occupations as businesses have become computer controlled and people have become unnecessary with one computer doing the job of sometimes whole departments.

Children used to get outside and play with their friends and be active whereas now their contact with their friends is mostly on line. There is more ‘aloneness’ in life today than there used to be as children of all ages use their computers as their main companions instead of getting out and being with their friends.

As well as the changes made by computers, there have been many changes made to computers. From the one that took up a whole room, we have the one that can be held in the palm of the hand. What a change!

How often do we embrace change with the complete abandon that it usually deserves? How often do we find our hearts beating that little bit faster when our family or friends share a story of change with us? How often are we sitting there thinking of all the reasons why that new idea or process can’t possibly work? Or worse still, how we are going to dig our heels in and keep things exactly how they are?

Yet there are so many positives that come with change, by doing different things in different ways with different people. How about that pure exhilaration of overcoming a fear, of meeting a challenge head on and winning? Of becoming a bigger, brighter, better “you”. The joy of finally climbing out of that rut you found yourself in, or the reward of finally realising a long held dream!

In fact, try imagining life without change; everything would cost a dollar, we’d still be living at home with our parents, there’d be flat tyres, dark rooms and we’d all still be washing those endless piles of baby nappies!

As the saying goes, a change is as good as a holiday, so pack up your fears, slip on a smile, slop on a positive attitude, slap on some courage and venture into that unchartered territory. You just might like the change you see…