The winds of change

Driving in the rain a few mornings back, the car windows started misting up.  I pressed a few buttons in the car, and it was smooth sailing again.  One button was the front winder de-mister, another for the back. Another button to wind down the passenger window and another for air.  One click of the wiper switch (up) for front wipers and another click forward for the back wiper. 

It made me think about times have changed - rather quickly if you think about it.  When I was younger, if the car misted up, mom had to wipe the window with a tissue she dug from her bag and we were all told to wind our windows down (sometimes a few times during the drive).  Everything was manual back then - and back then was only the 1980's.

Dad would do all the driving for family trips - whether to the shops or on a long trip. Mom only drove during the week - taking us 3 girls to school (on second thought, Dad used to take us to school), fetching us after school and any extra lessons (or other afternoon activity) we had - or to the library to get our books (usually followed by a visit to her friend).

All bills were paid in cash at the relevant buildings.  While Mom stood in the queue at the Electricity Department (Municipality) we would play on the big square chairs with "poofy" cushions and enjoy hearing the air deflate from the cushions. The same sound the chairs at the library would make - the round chairs that were fixed to the ground - sometimes fun to sit down and hear the pfffffffffffffff before spinning around a few times, other times not wanting to draw too much attention and sitting down slowly and only managing a softer but much longer  

p-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f 

Telephone bills, and clothing bills all paid in the same manner.  Clothes store visits were more fun - even though we weren't buying anything, we would hide behind the rows of clothes and play hide and seek until Mom called us.

Mom worked mornings only for many years while we were still young.  She would be done in time to fetch us from school. Years later she would start working full day.  The only way we were able to keep contact with her in the day was to phone her.  We only had our landline, and she didn't have a direct line - we always had to speak the receptionist.  She knew our voices as we phoned every day.  If we didn't phone her, she'd check in on us.  We never phoned Dad - unless it was an emergency. 

One such emergency was the day our old grey cat had a heart attack and died in front of us 3 girls.  Dad had to leave the office and travel almost an hour to get home. We closed the bedroom door and waited for what seemed like an eternity for dad to arrive home, which he managed to do in record time and buried "Grey Cat" (yes, that was her name!!).

Yip... How the times have changed...