The way things were

A pre world cup rugby game is currently in play and because I chrome cast my tv and don’t have Prime, I am unable to watch the game. I am not sure if it would be live or delayed, but either way, all that is available to me is written updates from the internet. For much of my life I have tried to save money where possible and using free tv is one of the ways of doing this, although in saying that, my broadband package, through which the tv is streamed, does cost $100 a month.

But my topic of today’s blog is how much our world has changed, and not for the better. When I was younger, I made the assumption that life and things around it would improve. For example, I was eight when we got tv. How exciting was that? And then all the rugby games were streamed live and rather than having to gather around the radio for these, we were able to watch them in real time. And then one day, the tv channels stopped showing these games, unless we paid. I see my internet provider has a sales blurb about how they have a sport’s channel. But that doesn’t include games like this rugby match. I think one can watch cricket, but there are other sports besides this.

It was only a few years ago when our banks were open five days a week and our post office six, when one could get a doctor’s appointment that day and actually see one’s doctor.

Our roads were in reasonably good repair, though windy, and we could get from a to b without too much congestion. There was always a road gang that travelled around repairing roads. We’d often see the trucks of metal and the men at the back with their shovels, filling in the holes.

We had batches at the beach that provided the most basic accommodation – now everything is so heavily regulated that the joy of those abodes has vanished. A simple structure isn’t allowed to exist. Council will demand that it be taken down.

Our post was delivered six days a week and postage was affordable, even milk was delivered to our houses, and doctors often made house visits. I know our one used to visit my father when he had pneumonia, and we lived half an hour from town.

But is there anything that is better? Yes, clothes are cheaper though many of them are poorly made. Washing is easy now too, with the simple flick of a switch. Thankfully the days of the agitator and wringers are long gone. Heat pumps have replaced fireplaces in many cases. While there are still plenty of the latter around, it is certainly easier for people my age to use the electric pumps and not have to worry about cutting, splitting and stacking the firewood as well as cleaning the fireplaces out each morning, though we do have to pay for the extra electricity used.

While food is more easily obtained, I am not sure we have a better diet, as so much processed food has crept into our lifestyles. However, it is nice to have imported cherries in the middle of winter, for example, something that would have been unheard of in the past.

World travel is obviously easier, and safer, too, with the increased airline destinations and the scrutiny carried out over any air accidents. It took our ancestors weeks to travel by boat to reach New Zealand once upon -a-time. But the train travel, which was so prevalent when I was a youngster, has largely disappeared. With my home town, Te Kuiti, being on the main trunk line, one was well aware of the services offered. There used to be a daily express train operating between Auckland and Wellington which would travel south-bound through Te Kuiti about 11pm and north-bound about 5am, as well as the railcar that ran in the middle of the day. I think the buses probably provide more services than they did when I was a child.

Of course, cars have improved, and with the imports, have provided cheaper varieties. I am not sure the push for electric cars is any kind of answer to climate change though. Where will the power sources come from to charge these? And what about the construction and disposing of the batteries used to run them? I can see things getting a whole lot worse on this front.

Medications, yes we have more, and many diseases we once might have died from are now curable, but the prevalence of disease has not lessened. That has got a whole lot worse as our diets have deteriorated.

But the biggest improvement, I think, is the development of the internet and our mobile phones. We can see things in real time and are now very aware of what is happening in other parts of the world. I can write my blogs and they are instantly live, we can screen movies and tv programmes whenever we feel like it. We can video talk to pretty much anyone in the world as well as texting messages back and forth to our friends and family. International phone calls were an expensive business in the past, so much so, that I think I only phoned home three times when I was overseas for 18 months, in my early twenties. Communication in those days was via letters.

So, the verdict – would I rather live today or 50 years ago? We can’t undo the past, we can only learn from it and maybe we can help shape our future. But I do feel fortunate that I can appreciate where things have improved along the way, even if the services that have deteriorated do make me grumpy at times.

Talking of grumpy, I have just heard the final score of the rugby, 35-7 to the Spring Boks, with that being the All Blacks largest defeat to South Africa, in history. The last record was held from a game in 1928. Maybe not being able to watch the games will be a good thing after all.