by Marie Vonow (follow)

Change (45)      Memories (26)      Consumerism (5)      Needs (5)     

How quickly one gets used to 'new' things and then can't imagine living without them. Sometimes the new thing replaces something less convenient and so you get rid of the original thing. At other times it is an additional item which is soon just a part of your everyday life.

Appliances we didn't have when I was a kid
There are many appliances I have now that our family didn't have when I was a pre schooler, including -
and many more.


There was a kettle to heat water for coffee or tea and doing the dishes and later, the luxury of an electric jug. We had a chip heater to heat water for Saturday night baths and a copper to heat water for doing the washing. It was considered essential to have hot water to wash your clothes back then. There was a wringer for squeezing water out of the wet clothes.

The air conditioning broke down a couple of summers back. That was a shock to the system but I survived the first thirty years of my life without any air conditioning in the house.

We got black and white television when I was eight. Over a decade later there was colour television, then video recorders and still later DVD players. Well, I could cope without a television set now, but only as long as I had my laptop to watch DVDs and Netflix on.


I couldn't manage without my laptop or my mobile phone as I use both for so many things. I laugh when I recall not having a phone at all when renting a couple of houses. We managed by using the nearest phone box, something one doesn't spot so often these days.

In one house there was not even one power point in the kitchen so we had to run an extension cord from another room. My current kitchen has no less than fourteen power points, I kid you not.

Other things that weren't around when I was a kid
These days I can buy -
and much much more.

You get the idea. There are so many products one has become used to and feels one can't live without. I was low on hair conditioner recently and thought back to the time it didn't exist.

I appreciate many things which are around now and wouldn't want to go back to a time without them. Other things I can actually live without and I find some things are quite unnecessary. Of course advertising tells me I need these things. It's up to me to decide what I really need and am willing to spend money on.

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# Change
# Consumerism
# Memories
# Needs

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