41 REMEMBER WHEN

As the weeks turned into months many of us from all over the world have had time to think about life and a lot of us have found ourselves looking back on how life used to be.

This fundamental change in the way we live our lives is not temporary. We will not go back to our previous way of life. We will permanently adjust to live with this new normal and live with the virus as with all other viruses that exist in on our home planet, as we have done over the centuries.

In times of uncertainty we naturally focus on things that make us feel comfortable and secure and it is usually small things from our past.

Here are some of the things that I have remembered or heard others refer to.

One of the first things I thought of was how my children will remember their lives pre Covid-19. The shift into our new life has been so dramatic that it has fundamentally changed forever.

With life being driven by everything taking place online, using mobile’s, ipads, tablets, that I was reminded that when I was growing up we had one static telephone with a dial face, no buttons! Now, we all access so much of what we do via them, least of all to use them to call people.

Our need for more powerful internet and wi-fi as we become more digitalised anf therefore more electricity to power everything, reminded me of a letter I read from my grandfather to my grandmother before they married in circa 1932; he was an electrical engineer and was singing the benefits of a ‘new electric light bulb that had the power of ‘40 candles’!’

Many people have listened more to the radio during lockdown and this reminded me of the weekly chart show and recording my favourite songs using a ‘tape recorder’... now I am showing my age! Today you no longer even need a stereo system, or CD’s; you just download songs and listen through a bluetooth/wifi speaker.

You would hope that posting a letter would remain unchanged, but no! We are now encouraged to purchase postage stamps online and use new drop off post boxes for larger items. With the huge increase in online orders, postal deliveries have skyrocketed. This has resulted in many small post offices being closed. These were often at the heart of many smaller villages and provided a vital service to the residents. Are the days of stamp collecting numbered!

Banking. Back in the 70’s and 80’s the advice was to take a job in the bank, as it was a ‘job for life’. Now with online banking, thousands of bank branches have closed and it is definitely no longer a job for life. When you do make it into a real bank, most transactions are now conducted via an ATM!

Many of us are now longing for the day when we can entertain again or have a big party! It’s our human nature to come together to cook, bake, toast and entertain. With Christmas on the horizon, and normal festive times unlikely, when will we be able to ‘party’ again with no limits!

Driving; my son is learning and the changes in what is taught has changed greatly since I learnt. There are no 3-point turns anymore and modern cars have made hill starts a thing of the past! It reminded me of a family story; when my great aunt was learning to drive in the 1920’s in a ‘Swift’, she was fine while driving forwards but freaked out at the corners and just let go of the wheel!

On a positive note, the lockdown brought many of us back to basics and we all began to cook and bake more. The oven was in overdrive in our house for sure!

I am glad too that throughout this period, my love of reading has continued in earnest and I have read even more. I think I needed it more too as it allowed me to escape this uncertain world and dive into the stories and characters of the books I read. Indeed, this seems to be the same for many, with book sales skyrocketing and in paper form rather than digital versions.

What will we face in our new world once life settles down? It will not be the same as before and indeed nothing stays the same, I only hope it will be for the better of us and our planet.

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by Dimitri Laspas