Progress

My father has been writing stories about times throughout his life (he’s just turned 90 and is an active tech user!) and I’ve just finished putting them into a book.

These wonderful stories present life before antibiotics and fuel powered agricultural machinery, before takeaways and convenience foods, a time when you couldn’t be contacted 24/7.

I thought I’d share a few thought provoking extracts:

“I had Osteomyelitis, an infection that caused many deaths in children as there were no antibiotics”.

“A friend gave me something called a ball point pen. It changed my writing life forever”!

“Haymaking was long, tiring work. Mum made a special oat drink from of a billy full of water with rolled oats soaking in it. She added salt and a few squeezes of lemon juice. We had a refrigerator and sometimes she included some ice blocks which was a real treat for those who didn’t have refrigerators”.

“In 1948 a new invention arrived. The haybaler came to New Zealand and that was the death kneel of neighbours helping each other. It was really quite sad because gone was the companionship of working together and we were no longer able to watch Mr. Laurenson (the local Hay sweep) perform his tricks”.

“Dad was an expert with gelignite but he didn’t like using too much fuse wire as it was expensive. A short piece meant he had to light it and run to the drain to hide from flying pieces of tree stump”.

“Because reverse gear was lower than first gear everyone had to get out and walk while Mum backed the car up the gravel hill”.

“Next came the World Wide Web. What an amazing thing. Email, Text, Google, Google Earth and more… Enter the start of the Instant World”.

Progress…?