My walk with technology
It started in the very early sixties my walk with technology. We lived in a metal prefab house in a place on the lake shores of Kariba, one of the biggest man made lakes in the world. My father was the radio operator for Kariba lake safety at that time. There were no roads, no shops, no malls, no houses ( except our prefab, the radio office prefab and the fisheries research professors prefab house/office ) no bank's nothing but the deep African bush. The Lion used to come onto the front veranda for shade, the elephant would move the house whilst scratching themselves on the house corner and the leopards would catch the chickens if you forgot to put them in their hen house. I was always amazed at my fathers radio, he would switch it on we would watch as the little glass tubes would light up one after another until all 6 were alight and then it would suddenly start speaking to us. It took a while for my poor father to explain that there was nobody in the metal box but there were radio waves that brought the voice from Kariba main station or from rangers boats on the lake. This was the beginning, my first introduction to technology.
In 1969 my father was promoted to Vice lake Captain so we had to move to Kariba town. This was terrifying, traveling on a huge boat across miles of rough water with all our few belongings. We arrived in Andora harbor at Kariba and the lake Captain had organized a gray police land rover to collect us. Bearing in mind I had never seen a car in my life at that stage I was walking up the hill when around the corner came this huge gray beast (land rover). I took it, by its size, and color to be a rhino so doing as I was taught I took of at pace climbed a tree to escape the beast.
Needless to say it took my father more than an hour to get me down from the tree and explain the beast. My hat technology how it moves.
In 1975, I had to travel to Salisbury (Harare) to see a dentist. My father told us it would take us 2 days to get there and it was going to be quite a journey. We all (6 of us 2 adults and 4 children) Jumped into our Series 0 short wheel base land rover, which only started with a crank handle, with our bags and off we went. We stayed with my aunt, she had this amazing wooden box with a window on the front. It had a lot of small people, horses cowboys and Indians that lived in it. The first time to see a TV. Hello technology. Hours and hours of explaining from my poor father eesh sorry Dad.
My journey with technology continued on to telephones that operated through switch boards to party line telephones to direct dial telephones. My first cell phone with its four foot ariel and 3 hour battery life was the size of a brick. From telegrams to telex to emails. My first computer was black and white and covered most of my desk and used floppy disks.
Today I sit and am amazed at what I can do with my cell phone. The only thing is its not my poor father trying to explain the technology now, it is now my poor son.
I kind of figured I would understand it one day but appear to have been left in the bush over it.
Recent Comments
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What a wonderful childhood you must have had! Thanks for sharing that personal story.
Many of us are challenged by the technology now, but we will get it.
All the best,
Colette and Philip
With technology being so commonplace, it's hard for some to remember the time before technology. I still remember the days in grammar school, typing all my reports on a typewriter. Then having to retype the whole page after my mom reviewed it for spelling and grammar. My, how much easier life has gotten with the creation of spell check. LOL! Thanks for sharing your story!