I recently caught up with a great two-episode series on the ABC called Streets of Your Town, about suburban architecture in Australia. It's worth a look - you can catch it here until 30 November.
Watching this, I suddenly recognised the first home I remember living in. It was a brick box with sloping roof, exposed beams and bricks, floor to ceiling windows, a split level ground floor and an open staircase, all nestled in a native garden and surrounded with a ti-tree fence. Tick tick tick - all of these are features beloved of the modernist architects of the time.
We have always remembered this house as an oddity - weirdly designed, a menace to small children, plagued with hunstman spiders thanks to being nestled in that native garden. But now I realise it was actually a modernist masterpiece!
Showing posts with label 1970s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1970s. Show all posts
Nov 25, 2016
Jul 11, 2016
The Movie Nut's Meme
Here's a short set of questions and answers about my movie history. I got this from Princess Pandora, who got it from Sunday Stealing.
Jun 27, 2015
Colour
Of all the wonders of the world, colour is one of the most perplexing and amazing. All the wonders of the world are perplexing and amazing when you look at them, of course. But colour is one of those things - like music, like beauty - that sings to our senses and affects the way we feel.
Our favourite colours may be a mystery to other people. When someone says "blue" is their favourite colour, most people will nod and many will agree. When someone chooses "red" you may instantly form an opinion of that person's personality. (Or maybe that's just me?)
I remember when I was a kid asking my dad his favourite colour and he said "orange" and I was thunderstruck. Orange? Who would choose orange? Orange was the most jarring, thirsty colour there was and I hated it. I could not fathom that someone could ever have that as their favourite colour. I told my mother and she laughed - she could not understand it either.
Nowadays, I quite like orange, and have a lot of it in clothing and accessories. But I still remember the horror I had for it as a child. I equated it with Fanta: horrible, glaring, hot, thirst-inducing.
On the other hand my sister's favourite colour as a child was yellow, and that to me was a very suitable, happy colour. I also had a bright yellow transistor radio that I loved - perhaps this was before the onslaught of little-girl pink in all things?
My favourite colours have always been some shade of blue or green. An image like this is like heaven to me:
I remember in primary school in L.A. in 1980, all the girls were into baby blue and lilac. I loved both colours but didn't feel I was worthy to share lilac with the popular girls (with their blonde hair, lipgloss, painted nails and beautiful clothes in pastel colours), so I stuck with baby blue.
I also adored - and still adore - mint and pale greens. I had a pale green gingham dress my mum made me which made me want to twirl and sing, and that mint green that was everywhere in the early eighties was one of my favourites. Just today at K-Mart I lobbied hard and unsuccessfully for one of my daughters to choose a gorgeous mint green shirt that took me right back to that time. (It should be sold with a Walkman).
The late eighties didn't leave me unscarred, so for a short time my favourite colour was electric blue.
In high school I ventured into darker colours. I was the proud collector of cool shirts in bright colours. My favourites were hot pink, teal, tourquoise, aqua and zambezi green.
Zambezi was my declared favourite colour for a few years.
In the early nineties I loved lime green and spring green - and I still love them (though no longer to wear). I do love my neon green Chux Super Wipes kitchen cloths! (I alternate between the green and the blue)
My whole life I have also loved midnight navy: the inky colour of the sky after sunset. I had a beautiful dark navy satin shirt in the eighties (with a cowl neck and massive shoulder pads, of course) that I teamed with a grey-and-navy striped yoke skirt (calf-length, of course), and navy "court shoes" when I was feeling fancy.
Growing up in Auckland, there was always the bay. Often it was glittery blue in the sunshine, but just as often it was dark and overcast, and I loved it best like that. My parents briefly had a holiday house in Pauanui on the Coromandel, where most times the beach was windswept and overcast. The stormy denim of the sea and sky of those memories is etched in my head, and my favourite colour of all time is probably a version of this.
Our favourite colours may be a mystery to other people. When someone says "blue" is their favourite colour, most people will nod and many will agree. When someone chooses "red" you may instantly form an opinion of that person's personality. (Or maybe that's just me?)
I remember when I was a kid asking my dad his favourite colour and he said "orange" and I was thunderstruck. Orange? Who would choose orange? Orange was the most jarring, thirsty colour there was and I hated it. I could not fathom that someone could ever have that as their favourite colour. I told my mother and she laughed - she could not understand it either.
Nowadays, I quite like orange, and have a lot of it in clothing and accessories. But I still remember the horror I had for it as a child. I equated it with Fanta: horrible, glaring, hot, thirst-inducing.
On the other hand my sister's favourite colour as a child was yellow, and that to me was a very suitable, happy colour. I also had a bright yellow transistor radio that I loved - perhaps this was before the onslaught of little-girl pink in all things?
My favourite colours have always been some shade of blue or green. An image like this is like heaven to me:
 |
| blue green |
I remember in primary school in L.A. in 1980, all the girls were into baby blue and lilac. I loved both colours but didn't feel I was worthy to share lilac with the popular girls (with their blonde hair, lipgloss, painted nails and beautiful clothes in pastel colours), so I stuck with baby blue.
I also adored - and still adore - mint and pale greens. I had a pale green gingham dress my mum made me which made me want to twirl and sing, and that mint green that was everywhere in the early eighties was one of my favourites. Just today at K-Mart I lobbied hard and unsuccessfully for one of my daughters to choose a gorgeous mint green shirt that took me right back to that time. (It should be sold with a Walkman).
 |
| Best eighties mint green |
 |
| mint gingham |
The late eighties didn't leave me unscarred, so for a short time my favourite colour was electric blue.
 |
| electric blue |
In high school I ventured into darker colours. I was the proud collector of cool shirts in bright colours. My favourites were hot pink, teal, tourquoise, aqua and zambezi green.
 |
| teal |
Zambezi was my declared favourite colour for a few years.
 |
| zambezi green car |
In the early nineties I loved lime green and spring green - and I still love them (though no longer to wear). I do love my neon green Chux Super Wipes kitchen cloths! (I alternate between the green and the blue)
My whole life I have also loved midnight navy: the inky colour of the sky after sunset. I had a beautiful dark navy satin shirt in the eighties (with a cowl neck and massive shoulder pads, of course) that I teamed with a grey-and-navy striped yoke skirt (calf-length, of course), and navy "court shoes" when I was feeling fancy.
 |
| glorious deep midnight navy |
Growing up in Auckland, there was always the bay. Often it was glittery blue in the sunshine, but just as often it was dark and overcast, and I loved it best like that. My parents briefly had a holiday house in Pauanui on the Coromandel, where most times the beach was windswept and overcast. The stormy denim of the sea and sky of those memories is etched in my head, and my favourite colour of all time is probably a version of this.
 |
| Stormy Blue |
What's your favourite colour? What memories does it evoke in you?
Feb 18, 2015
Going for a drive
When I was a kid one thing our family did quite a bit was go for a drive. We were not driving to anywhere. Usually we would not even get out of the car. We were just going for a drive.
The 1970s and 80s I guess were the last gasp of the "driving as an end in itself" hobby. When you think about it, it makes sense. Cars took off as something that everyday people owned in the 1950s and 1960s, and at that time people did of course, go driving as a fun activity. The kids from that time were my dad and his generation, so they continued the practice, to a lesser degree, in their adulthood. Plus in my family's case, both my grandfather and my father worked in the auto parts industry, so they were into cars and driving anyway.
My dad like his dad was "a Ford man". In Australia in the 1970s you were either a Ford man or a Holden man. My dad like his dad drove a large Ford sedan, which he was entitled to lease or buy courtesy of his employer. These were nice cars, but being the 1970s they were not a patch on cars today. They didn't have retractable seat belts or air-conditioning. As kids we would get car sick in the back, and there was no DVD system to distract us, no sirree Bob! (Mine was a deprived childhood, obviously). But they were big, and on long trips up to New South Wales or Queensland there was enough room in the back for me and my sister to curl up and sleep, moderately comfortably, against the armrests or leaning on our pillows against the doors.
My dad always took care of his cars. I don't recall ever eating or drinking in one, though we must have been allowed to on occasion I suppose. He would get mad at us for wiping condensation off the windows, or for touching the window glass at all. Dad washed the car regularly, and did the weekly oil and water checks, and kept the tyres inflated. So the car was always ready for a drive.
The best car I remember was a blue Ford Fairlane with leather seats and a white roof. I think that one had air conditioning. Which you'd think was a huge improvement but in fact often meant me and my sister sweltering in the back and not allowed to wind down our windows because the air conditioning had just been turned on and would kick in "in a couple of minutes".
But even in a nice car, going for a drive is not something that kids usually choose to do with their weekends. When Dad would announce we were going for a drive, my sister and I would groan and moan but there was no getting out of it so we'd get in the car and off we'd go.
Strangely I don't remember a lot about these drives. I remember the experience of being in the back seat of the car: playing games (or fighting) with my sister, feeling car sick, the prickle of the seat fabric against my bare legs (or the stickiness of the seat leather in the later years), the seat belt strap chafing my neck, the burning hot metal belt buckle on a summer day. I remember tinder-dry farmland and winding roads, and feeling thirsty.
The only place I loved going for a drive was the Dandenongs. I loved the tall trees, the filtered light, the quiet, and the green ferns. I didn't even mind that we never actually stopped the car and got out and enjoyed the forest up close. I just loved driving through it.
I also loved driving on the freeway, driving at night and driving in the rain. I loved the feeling of snuggling against the car door, gazing out the window at the dusk, stars or streaming rain, and listening to my parents talking quietly in the front.
Last Friday after work I picked up my kids from Mum's house but we stayed there a bit later than usual because it was raining hard, and I prefer not to drive in pelting rain if I have a choice. When I told the kids we were waiting for the rain to ease off, M was disappointed. "But I love driving in the rain," she said. "It's so cosy!"
We don't "go for a drive" these days, but we do drive a fair bit, and I do love driving. I still like driving on freeways and driving at night. So my kids will have their own "driving memories" similar to mine, I guess. But without the car sickness, sweltering heat, or the elbow burn incurred from a hot metal belt buckle in summer.
The 1970s and 80s I guess were the last gasp of the "driving as an end in itself" hobby. When you think about it, it makes sense. Cars took off as something that everyday people owned in the 1950s and 1960s, and at that time people did of course, go driving as a fun activity. The kids from that time were my dad and his generation, so they continued the practice, to a lesser degree, in their adulthood. Plus in my family's case, both my grandfather and my father worked in the auto parts industry, so they were into cars and driving anyway.
My dad like his dad was "a Ford man". In Australia in the 1970s you were either a Ford man or a Holden man. My dad like his dad drove a large Ford sedan, which he was entitled to lease or buy courtesy of his employer. These were nice cars, but being the 1970s they were not a patch on cars today. They didn't have retractable seat belts or air-conditioning. As kids we would get car sick in the back, and there was no DVD system to distract us, no sirree Bob! (Mine was a deprived childhood, obviously). But they were big, and on long trips up to New South Wales or Queensland there was enough room in the back for me and my sister to curl up and sleep, moderately comfortably, against the armrests or leaning on our pillows against the doors.
My dad always took care of his cars. I don't recall ever eating or drinking in one, though we must have been allowed to on occasion I suppose. He would get mad at us for wiping condensation off the windows, or for touching the window glass at all. Dad washed the car regularly, and did the weekly oil and water checks, and kept the tyres inflated. So the car was always ready for a drive.
The best car I remember was a blue Ford Fairlane with leather seats and a white roof. I think that one had air conditioning. Which you'd think was a huge improvement but in fact often meant me and my sister sweltering in the back and not allowed to wind down our windows because the air conditioning had just been turned on and would kick in "in a couple of minutes".
But even in a nice car, going for a drive is not something that kids usually choose to do with their weekends. When Dad would announce we were going for a drive, my sister and I would groan and moan but there was no getting out of it so we'd get in the car and off we'd go.
Strangely I don't remember a lot about these drives. I remember the experience of being in the back seat of the car: playing games (or fighting) with my sister, feeling car sick, the prickle of the seat fabric against my bare legs (or the stickiness of the seat leather in the later years), the seat belt strap chafing my neck, the burning hot metal belt buckle on a summer day. I remember tinder-dry farmland and winding roads, and feeling thirsty.
The only place I loved going for a drive was the Dandenongs. I loved the tall trees, the filtered light, the quiet, and the green ferns. I didn't even mind that we never actually stopped the car and got out and enjoyed the forest up close. I just loved driving through it.
 |
| dmscvan/Flickr CC |
I also loved driving on the freeway, driving at night and driving in the rain. I loved the feeling of snuggling against the car door, gazing out the window at the dusk, stars or streaming rain, and listening to my parents talking quietly in the front.
Last Friday after work I picked up my kids from Mum's house but we stayed there a bit later than usual because it was raining hard, and I prefer not to drive in pelting rain if I have a choice. When I told the kids we were waiting for the rain to ease off, M was disappointed. "But I love driving in the rain," she said. "It's so cosy!"
We don't "go for a drive" these days, but we do drive a fair bit, and I do love driving. I still like driving on freeways and driving at night. So my kids will have their own "driving memories" similar to mine, I guess. But without the car sickness, sweltering heat, or the elbow burn incurred from a hot metal belt buckle in summer.
Dec 2, 2014
How things have changed
I tell you it's uncanny. A couple of months ago I was thinking about music over the years and about how songs have changed since the 80s. I mused on two things: one is how no one does the "fade out" anymore. Until quite recently all pop songs always ended in a fade out, to the point where it was just the standard way to end a song. That no longer is the case. The second thing was how singers used to do their own "special effects" such as repeats and echos - e.g, Rod Stewart in Young Turks towards the end going "ti-ti-time is on your side, side side side" (etc). It's pretty funny when you hear it in an old song now, but back then it was, again, just standard.
Then a few weeks ago I noticed Slate did a whole article on the demise of the fade-out in pop music, and BAM, I can't talk about this now.
Slate has a way of capturing what we used to call the zeitgeist: things you were thinking or almost thinking yourself which means probably everyone was thinking them. Right there now are articles about how the internet has made us constantly "obsessed" with things ("cultural manias"), how popular Taylor Swift is, and how we should not attempt to bring back extinct species (in case you missed it, some guy wants to bring back dinosaurs, as if Jurassic Park never happened).
Anyhoo, then in the last few days I've been playing with a post in my head about listing all the ways that life is different now compared to when I was a child... Well, I know that's not hugely original. But still, now I see Neil deGrasse Tyson has just done the same thing. What's more, the first thing in his list is about toothpaste tubes, which was one of mine. So therefore, before I have to delete all my draft posts and come up with something new (of which I have nothing), I'm just going to NOT read any more of Neil's list and I'm going to go ahead with my list as it is.
Toothpaste tubes were made of metal, and would develop very sharp points where you squeezed them, which could give you a nasty scratch. They were also messy, because they had screw-cap lids which also tended to roll lazily off the benchtop and onto the floor while you cleaned your teeth.
Telephones had three sounds that don't exist anymore. The lovely soft brrrrr made by the rotary dial, which I loved, the lovely soft brrrr-brrrr made by the telephone ringing at the other end while you waited for the other side to pick up, and the horrible, jangly, nerve-wrackingly loud ring at your end when someone called. From the time I was little until the fairly recent advent of soft-tone phones, I HATED the sound of the telephone ringing. Remember that tiny little sound it made right before it started ringing, almost as if it was taking a breath before screeching? Like nails on a blackboard.
Blackboards.
Classroom work-sheets from mimeograph machines (mmm, that lovely purple smell...) *
Teachers thought schoolyard bullying was an inevitable part of childhood and didn't do much about it.
Corporal punishment in schools - remember that? We didn't have "the strap" from my parents' days, but boys got a slap with a wooden ruler on the back of the legs, and girls on their open palm. Or girls were told to "touch your toes" and then a slap was delivered to the bottom. Creepy. I still remember a teacher on the first day of class showing us a wooden ruler with black marks on the back which she said were made by "boys' legs".
More things were made of wood. Rulers, strawberry crates, even some kids' pencil cases (thanks Mum for reminding me of that one). Strawberries were only available once a year.
Our parents and teachers sharpened our pencils with a knife.
We ate less. I'm pretty sure I passed most of my childhood in a state of mild hunger, being fed only with three square meals and two small snacks daily; my poor deprived childhood....
Takeout every Saturday. Fish and chips, occasionally hamburgers, Chinese dim sims with rice and soy sauce, or my favourite, Kentucky Fried Chicken (that's KFC to you, kids). We rarely ate McDonald's, but when we did, I always had the box of fried chicken. No nuggets in those days.
In school I learned that brontosauruses were real, dinosaurs were covered in scales, and there was this ridiculous new theory that a meteor might have wiped them out. As if! We also learned that the global temperature was cooling and we were headed for another ice age.
Expensive, special-treat colouring books made of white paper instead of the normal scratchy brown paper. Expensive, special-treat comic books made of white paper with the occasional coloured page in them, when Dad shelled out for the 75c one.
Two-colour printing. Common in children's books, flyers, and posters. This was still a thing, just, into the early nineties, when in my early twenties I worked briefly for a university printing and publishing office. People would bring in their floppy discs, let us know if the work was formatted or not, and we would book in some desktop publishing followed by some thrifty two-colour printing.
Book pages that had visible wood shavings in them.
I remember when toast-slice bread became available. It was so decadent! A sensible friend eschewed toast-slice bread on the basis that you will always eat two slices of bread so with toast-slice bread you are eating too much bread - thus giving me a lesson in moderation which I remembered but alas, have rarely practiced.
No one I knew got up before 7.00 am. That left ample time for breakfast and the work commute.
If you were lucky enough to have a trampoline or a friend with a trampoline, then you were unlucky enough to pinch the skin of your palm in between the springs around the edge. OUCH!
There was hardly any air-conditioning. Summers were spent sweltering in unbearable heat and bathed in a constant film of sweat. Car rides were torture. School days spent in boiling hot portable class rooms, where the only air came from louvered windows right up near the ceiling that the teacher had to open with a two-metre pole.
We drank less water I suppose, because we didn't carry water bottles around. Or we drank hot water out of drinking taps. Make no mistake, I don't miss this. When I was a kid I used to wish you could buy water in a can (soft drinks were my only reference for purchased drinks).
Homemade clothes. My mother made many of our clothes, even doing a Knitwit course and making us t-shirts and sweatshirts. So when I grew up I made myself skirts, dresses and once even a pair of cuffed trousers. Then suddenly, at some point in the 1990s, it became more expensive to make clothes than buy them.
* As Andrew points out in the comments, I might be thinking of a roneo/spirit duplicator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator) which I have for years thought of as a mimeograph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph) - similar, but different.
Then a few weeks ago I noticed Slate did a whole article on the demise of the fade-out in pop music, and BAM, I can't talk about this now.
Slate has a way of capturing what we used to call the zeitgeist: things you were thinking or almost thinking yourself which means probably everyone was thinking them. Right there now are articles about how the internet has made us constantly "obsessed" with things ("cultural manias"), how popular Taylor Swift is, and how we should not attempt to bring back extinct species (in case you missed it, some guy wants to bring back dinosaurs, as if Jurassic Park never happened).
Anyhoo, then in the last few days I've been playing with a post in my head about listing all the ways that life is different now compared to when I was a child... Well, I know that's not hugely original. But still, now I see Neil deGrasse Tyson has just done the same thing. What's more, the first thing in his list is about toothpaste tubes, which was one of mine. So therefore, before I have to delete all my draft posts and come up with something new (of which I have nothing), I'm just going to NOT read any more of Neil's list and I'm going to go ahead with my list as it is.
Things that have changed since I was a child
 |
| H is for Home/Flickr CC |
Toothpaste tubes were made of metal, and would develop very sharp points where you squeezed them, which could give you a nasty scratch. They were also messy, because they had screw-cap lids which also tended to roll lazily off the benchtop and onto the floor while you cleaned your teeth.
Telephones had three sounds that don't exist anymore. The lovely soft brrrrr made by the rotary dial, which I loved, the lovely soft brrrr-brrrr made by the telephone ringing at the other end while you waited for the other side to pick up, and the horrible, jangly, nerve-wrackingly loud ring at your end when someone called. From the time I was little until the fairly recent advent of soft-tone phones, I HATED the sound of the telephone ringing. Remember that tiny little sound it made right before it started ringing, almost as if it was taking a breath before screeching? Like nails on a blackboard.
Blackboards.
Classroom work-sheets from mimeograph machines (mmm, that lovely purple smell...) *
Teachers thought schoolyard bullying was an inevitable part of childhood and didn't do much about it.
Corporal punishment in schools - remember that? We didn't have "the strap" from my parents' days, but boys got a slap with a wooden ruler on the back of the legs, and girls on their open palm. Or girls were told to "touch your toes" and then a slap was delivered to the bottom. Creepy. I still remember a teacher on the first day of class showing us a wooden ruler with black marks on the back which she said were made by "boys' legs".
More things were made of wood. Rulers, strawberry crates, even some kids' pencil cases (thanks Mum for reminding me of that one). Strawberries were only available once a year.
Our parents and teachers sharpened our pencils with a knife.
We ate less. I'm pretty sure I passed most of my childhood in a state of mild hunger, being fed only with three square meals and two small snacks daily; my poor deprived childhood....
Takeout every Saturday. Fish and chips, occasionally hamburgers, Chinese dim sims with rice and soy sauce, or my favourite, Kentucky Fried Chicken (that's KFC to you, kids). We rarely ate McDonald's, but when we did, I always had the box of fried chicken. No nuggets in those days.
In school I learned that brontosauruses were real, dinosaurs were covered in scales, and there was this ridiculous new theory that a meteor might have wiped them out. As if! We also learned that the global temperature was cooling and we were headed for another ice age.
Expensive, special-treat colouring books made of white paper instead of the normal scratchy brown paper. Expensive, special-treat comic books made of white paper with the occasional coloured page in them, when Dad shelled out for the 75c one.
Two-colour printing. Common in children's books, flyers, and posters. This was still a thing, just, into the early nineties, when in my early twenties I worked briefly for a university printing and publishing office. People would bring in their floppy discs, let us know if the work was formatted or not, and we would book in some desktop publishing followed by some thrifty two-colour printing.
Book pages that had visible wood shavings in them.
I remember when toast-slice bread became available. It was so decadent! A sensible friend eschewed toast-slice bread on the basis that you will always eat two slices of bread so with toast-slice bread you are eating too much bread - thus giving me a lesson in moderation which I remembered but alas, have rarely practiced.
No one I knew got up before 7.00 am. That left ample time for breakfast and the work commute.
If you were lucky enough to have a trampoline or a friend with a trampoline, then you were unlucky enough to pinch the skin of your palm in between the springs around the edge. OUCH!
There was hardly any air-conditioning. Summers were spent sweltering in unbearable heat and bathed in a constant film of sweat. Car rides were torture. School days spent in boiling hot portable class rooms, where the only air came from louvered windows right up near the ceiling that the teacher had to open with a two-metre pole.
We drank less water I suppose, because we didn't carry water bottles around. Or we drank hot water out of drinking taps. Make no mistake, I don't miss this. When I was a kid I used to wish you could buy water in a can (soft drinks were my only reference for purchased drinks).
Homemade clothes. My mother made many of our clothes, even doing a Knitwit course and making us t-shirts and sweatshirts. So when I grew up I made myself skirts, dresses and once even a pair of cuffed trousers. Then suddenly, at some point in the 1990s, it became more expensive to make clothes than buy them.
What else has changed in your lifetime?
* As Andrew points out in the comments, I might be thinking of a roneo/spirit duplicator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator) which I have for years thought of as a mimeograph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph) - similar, but different.
Dec 4, 2013
Overthinking it
The other day I put little notes in my kids' lunchboxes. I've done it before but not for awhile. In the past I've done notes that say things like "Hi [child's name], Have a nice day. Love Mum [heart and/or smiley face]".
This time my note looked like this:
That night A took me aside and whispered, troubled: "Mum, why did you tell me to smile?"
"No reason," I said. "It was just another way to say I love you."
She was confused. "But I know you love me." (OK, so that's good). "So why did you tell me I have to smile? I wasn't sad or grumpy."
"Oh, it doesn't mean that," I said. "It's a cultural meme, referencing the 'smile, Jesus loves you' signs of the 1970s that I grew up with, with which of course you are utterly unfamiliar."
(I didn't say that).
A little while later M said, "Mum, why did you leave us a note in our lunchboxes?"
"Just to say hi," I said. "I've done it before. Do you remember?"
"No." She frowned. "Why did you say 'your mum loves you' ? Why just Mum? What about Dad?"
Ay, ay, ay, ay...
This time my note looked like this:
That night A took me aside and whispered, troubled: "Mum, why did you tell me to smile?"
"No reason," I said. "It was just another way to say I love you."
She was confused. "But I know you love me." (OK, so that's good). "So why did you tell me I have to smile? I wasn't sad or grumpy."
"Oh, it doesn't mean that," I said. "It's a cultural meme, referencing the 'smile, Jesus loves you' signs of the 1970s that I grew up with, with which of course you are utterly unfamiliar."
(I didn't say that).
A little while later M said, "Mum, why did you leave us a note in our lunchboxes?"
"Just to say hi," I said. "I've done it before. Do you remember?"
"No." She frowned. "Why did you say 'your mum loves you' ? Why just Mum? What about Dad?"
Ay, ay, ay, ay...
 |
| Photo: Cellar_Door_Films/Flickr |
Sep 24, 2013
Swap Cards
Last week Cranky Old Man blogged about baseball cards kids traded in the 1950s, and that made me think of swap cards.
...which they use to play Snap or Memory, when we're not playing Go Fish with these:
And are now really into the Woolworths Aussie Animal cards, which I have to admit are a really good collectible:
Swap cards were a hobby for kids in the 1970s, especially girls.
You bought them singly in news agents for 5 or 10 cents each initially - if I recall correctly they did get more expensive (25 cents?) and some designs might have been dearer than others, but I'm hazy on that.
Every girl I knew had a deck of swap cards held together with a rubber band or stored in an album. We took them to each other's houses and to school and sometimes we did swap them, but mostly we just looked at them!
Every girl I knew had a deck of swap cards held together with a rubber band or stored in an album. We took them to each other's houses and to school and sometimes we did swap them, but mostly we just looked at them!
I loved my swap cards.
I have no idea what happened to them. (Mum?)
The most popular designs were Sarah Kay, Holly Hobby and her imitators: girls with patchwork dresses or flared jeans and floppy hats. There were lots of pictures of puppies and kittens, quite a few horses, and a few 'boy' designs like fishermen, boats and cars.
They were often produced in pairs of complementary designs - for examples see here.
Some were like real playing cards with a number and suit on the back, but most were plain white on the back.
 |
| Now selling on eBay for $7! |
They were often produced in pairs of complementary designs - for examples see here.
Some were like real playing cards with a number and suit on the back, but most were plain white on the back.
 |
| cards for sale on eBay |
I've just had a lot of fun looking over swap cards on this flickr group and on eBay. I felt a sudden thrill when I came across pictures of the same cards I used to own, like the three above, and these ones (images all from eBay):
Looking at these images of once-loved cards it feels like no time at all since I held them in my hands.
I've thought of swap cards a few times since my girls have got into cards of one kind or another.
Looking at these images of once-loved cards it feels like no time at all since I held them in my hands.
I've thought of swap cards a few times since my girls have got into cards of one kind or another.
They both love their fairy cards:
...which they use to play Snap or Memory, when we're not playing Go Fish with these:
And are now really into the Woolworths Aussie Animal cards, which I have to admit are a really good collectible:
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| This is not a sponsored post! |
Did you collect cards as a kid?
Sep 12, 2013
Farewell to Cal Worthington, and his dog Spot
This week Cal Worthington died aged 92.
For non-US readers, Cal Worthington was the used car salesman who came to epitomise both used car salesmen and the type of funny/annoying, hard-sell, earworm-jingle TV ads that he did so well.
When I was nine my family moved to Los Angeles and I vividly remember Cal Worthington. He was all over the TV all the time. I am sure he was extremely annoying, but to kids (and probably my America-besotted dad) he was fantastic. I still remember my dad calling us over to the TV when we had only just settled in LA and saying "You've got to see this guy, come and look at this!"
Australian TV ads in the 70s could be strident ("From K-Tel, record $3.99, cassette $4.99!"), but we had never seen anything like this before.
The ads started with a booming voice-over: "Here's Cal Worthington....and his dog Spot!", as Cal jogged through his car lot wearing a cowboy hat and suit and leading an exotic animal on a leash (or on roller skates, or in a sidecar). It was a different animal every time; once he even rode an elephant.
Quite rightly animal protection laws would not allow such ads these days.
The ads were also often LONG and would itemise tens of cars and deals, with Cal's sales patter throughout ("I will stand on my head till my ears turn red, to make a deal"). There was often a give-away such as steak dinners, or kids' toys, or random crap like "this umbrella hat you can wear on your head", on offer whether or not you bought a car (but I wonder how many people got away without buying a car?!) At the time we were there (1979-1981), there were similar car dealer ads on TV, but Cal's were the best (or the worst!). I don't know whether others imitated him or if he was just part of a trend at the time, but whatever it was, he nailed it.
And the jingle.... I've had the jingle stuck in my head for the last two days:
It was impossible not to like him. He seemed so happy and good-natured, and there's something admirable about those super salesmen who will happily and regularly make themselves ridiculous for success.
He had quite an interesting life, as I've learned this week. He was also a quintessential American success story, rising from childhood poverty to a huge business that owned multiple car lots and properties and even a studio which produced all his ads. (I was surprised to read in the New York Times article where I learned of his death, that he recently said, "I never much liked the car business. I just kind of got trapped in it after the war. I didn’t have the skills to do anything else.")
He was also part of my childhood. In 1979 Australia was a very different place - not worldly and not acculturated to the US the way it is now. So when we arrived in the US it was honestly like a different world. There was little that was familiar, so that was hard adjusting - but at the same time we all loved the outgoing, relaxed and ultra-friendly style of the culture there. It's hard to convey now how fresh and different it all seemed.
Cal Worthington was one of the defining icons of my childhood America. (He shares this honour with Peter Popoff, Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera and John Davidson). He personified America to us.
Here is a tribute combination of a whole lot of his ads from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Rest in peace, Cal Worthington. My sister and I still love you!
Oh OK then, here are some more:
http://consumerist.com/2013/09/10/7-reasons-wacky-used-car-salesman-cal-worthington-will-never-be-forgotten/
http://www.mydogspot.com/video.htm
For non-US readers, Cal Worthington was the used car salesman who came to epitomise both used car salesmen and the type of funny/annoying, hard-sell, earworm-jingle TV ads that he did so well.
 |
| Cal Worthington image by Mntbloom / Wikimedia Commons |
When I was nine my family moved to Los Angeles and I vividly remember Cal Worthington. He was all over the TV all the time. I am sure he was extremely annoying, but to kids (and probably my America-besotted dad) he was fantastic. I still remember my dad calling us over to the TV when we had only just settled in LA and saying "You've got to see this guy, come and look at this!"
Australian TV ads in the 70s could be strident ("From K-Tel, record $3.99, cassette $4.99!"), but we had never seen anything like this before.
The ads started with a booming voice-over: "Here's Cal Worthington....and his dog Spot!", as Cal jogged through his car lot wearing a cowboy hat and suit and leading an exotic animal on a leash (or on roller skates, or in a sidecar). It was a different animal every time; once he even rode an elephant.
Quite rightly animal protection laws would not allow such ads these days.
The ads were also often LONG and would itemise tens of cars and deals, with Cal's sales patter throughout ("I will stand on my head till my ears turn red, to make a deal"). There was often a give-away such as steak dinners, or kids' toys, or random crap like "this umbrella hat you can wear on your head", on offer whether or not you bought a car (but I wonder how many people got away without buying a car?!) At the time we were there (1979-1981), there were similar car dealer ads on TV, but Cal's were the best (or the worst!). I don't know whether others imitated him or if he was just part of a trend at the time, but whatever it was, he nailed it.
And the jingle.... I've had the jingle stuck in my head for the last two days:
If you want to buy a car go see Cal
For the best deal by far go see Cal
If you want your payments slow
If you want to save some dough
Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal
He had quite an interesting life, as I've learned this week. He was also a quintessential American success story, rising from childhood poverty to a huge business that owned multiple car lots and properties and even a studio which produced all his ads. (I was surprised to read in the New York Times article where I learned of his death, that he recently said, "I never much liked the car business. I just kind of got trapped in it after the war. I didn’t have the skills to do anything else.")
He was also part of my childhood. In 1979 Australia was a very different place - not worldly and not acculturated to the US the way it is now. So when we arrived in the US it was honestly like a different world. There was little that was familiar, so that was hard adjusting - but at the same time we all loved the outgoing, relaxed and ultra-friendly style of the culture there. It's hard to convey now how fresh and different it all seemed.
Cal Worthington was one of the defining icons of my childhood America. (He shares this honour with Peter Popoff, Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera and John Davidson). He personified America to us.
Here is a tribute combination of a whole lot of his ads from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Rest in peace, Cal Worthington. My sister and I still love you!
Oh OK then, here are some more:
http://consumerist.com/2013/09/10/7-reasons-wacky-used-car-salesman-cal-worthington-will-never-be-forgotten/
http://www.mydogspot.com/video.htm
May 31, 2013
Photos From the Olden Days
My mum recently gave my sister and me each a big envelope full of our old school photos and school reports. It's funny looking at photos of your child self that you haven't seen in years. Memories come flooding back; sometimes things (or you) look different to how you remember them; sometimes even the photo is different to how you remember it.
This is me in Grade 5 or 6 when we lived in LA. I loved this lavender t-shirt. I was never a cool kid, and my clothes were pretty non-cool with the occasional exception, and this shirt was one of them. It was the perfect shape, colour and fit, and was so in. Likewise my Ocean Pacific-inspired shirt with the flowers and sunset, which unfortunately does not survive in photos.
The pendant around my neck is from Mexico, and I still wear it.
This is my class photo from Grade 1, 1976.
I am in the second row from the top, and I have very curly hair.
Here I am in Grade 5 in the US. No school uniforms over there!
I'm in the top right corner, behind the teacher.
High school, in Auckland New Zealand, 1985. As if you can't tell.
I'm at the bottom, third from the right. I remember I was quite proud of how my hair looked at that period in my life. Oddly enough.
My kids found these photos a lot of fun. I asked if they could pick me in each one, and to my surprise, they picked me right nearly every time.
I guess I haven't changed as much as I would have liked. :-)
This is me in Grade 5 or 6 when we lived in LA. I loved this lavender t-shirt. I was never a cool kid, and my clothes were pretty non-cool with the occasional exception, and this shirt was one of them. It was the perfect shape, colour and fit, and was so in. Likewise my Ocean Pacific-inspired shirt with the flowers and sunset, which unfortunately does not survive in photos.
The pendant around my neck is from Mexico, and I still wear it.
This is my class photo from Grade 1, 1976.
I am in the second row from the top, and I have very curly hair.
Here I am in Grade 5 in the US. No school uniforms over there!
I'm in the top right corner, behind the teacher.
High school, in Auckland New Zealand, 1985. As if you can't tell.
I'm at the bottom, third from the right. I remember I was quite proud of how my hair looked at that period in my life. Oddly enough.
My kids found these photos a lot of fun. I asked if they could pick me in each one, and to my surprise, they picked me right nearly every time.
I guess I haven't changed as much as I would have liked. :-)
May 26, 2013
The End of the Ford Falcon
Big companies have responsibilities to their communities, especially when they have provided jobs for thousands and custom for other businesses for so long that families and towns identify with them.
Ford is meeting those responsibilities, from what we know so far.
Ford Australia has been operating in Geelong since 1926. Ford cars have been a huge part of the Australian landscape since then.
Every big corporation makes bad decisions. Every US head office of every multinational has misjudged their overseas markets and kept business going when they shouldn't have or pulled the plug at the wrong time or failed to take the local conditions and culture into account. That's global capitalism, and it's part of the pay-off we accept in return for jobs, markets, economies of scale, choice and convenience.
Ford has given its workers three years' notice and will I am sure provide good redundancies and assistance with training or job search.
Not that that doesn't mean that the next few years won't be awful for Ford workers. They will.
But the news of Ford's closure here has been greeted by most with a sort of sad inevitability. Even its workers were "shocked but not surprised".
Most people understand that manufacturing is increasingly difficult here. Few of those who commented agreed with this angry rant in The Age, for example. We all see what has happened over the years to manufacturing - and to cars. The days of the big corporate fleets and the big family sedan are over. Most people accept Ford's statement that manufacturing their cars in Australia is no longer affordable.
So what of the government's propping up of the car industry here with stimulus and assistance packages?
Well, there were reasons for those.
Firstly, while it's logically a waste of money to prop up losing industries, in practice it's not that simple. Whole industries can't just be cut off and left to fail without causing massive upheaval economically and socially. It's not just politically unsound to let that happen, it is wrong. So all reasonable governments end up spending too much on losing deals propping up failing industries, and are no doubt as irked at having to do so as the public are at having to bear the cost. (Though of course, the actual cost to any non-involved individual is close to nil, while the benefits of not having a huge industry suddenly fail are real).
Secondly, post-GFC, all governments in a position to do so threw money at stimulus programs to keep the economy moving, and that included much dubious spending, because the spending was more important than the product, at that time. No one was especially happy at propping up car manufacturers during this period, especially in the US where the government had already suffered the political fallout from propping up banks, and where the car company reps flew to Washington for their bailouts in their private jets.
But that's how it all works. Otherwise we'd be Greece.
Until 2011, I too worked for a US multinational, and I was made redundant after long months of uncertainty, stress and misery. The packages were good (not as generous as they had been in the past, but times had definitely changed), and the company provided a career counselling service which gave employees resume help and access to office space for a month.
I was not in the same industry as the workers facing redundancy at Ford. I was lucky to get another job in the same industry working with people and a company I knew well. So I don't pretend to be in the same boat. But say what you will about multinationals (and most of what you say is justified) - at least they are big enough to provide entitlements and protection to workers. Unlike small businesses, which tend to leave workers stranded when they go under.
I have quite fond childhood memories of being driven around in Ford sedans. My dad and grandfather loved Ford cars, and in the seventies my parents drove a Cortina, a Falcon, a Fairlane, and memorably in America, a huge Lincoln Continental.
The family sedan was good for Sunday drives to the Dandenongs and for family holidays. We drove to the Central Coast in New South Wales or the Gold Coast in Queensland, epic two or three-day family journeys involving car sickness, counting games, roadhouse stops, seat belts chafing against childhood necks, sweaty backs sticking to vinyl seats, and my sister and me sleeping with pillows propped against the armrest while we sped through the night.
My dream car when I was a kid was the red and white Ford Gran Torino in Starsky and Hutch.
But those days are long gone. No one wants a sedan any more, and no one can afford to make them in this country.
Ford is meeting those responsibilities, from what we know so far.
Ford Australia has been operating in Geelong since 1926. Ford cars have been a huge part of the Australian landscape since then.
 |
| by Hugo90 via Flickr |
 |
| by racin jason via Flickr |
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| by Highway Patrol Images via Flickr |
Every big corporation makes bad decisions. Every US head office of every multinational has misjudged their overseas markets and kept business going when they shouldn't have or pulled the plug at the wrong time or failed to take the local conditions and culture into account. That's global capitalism, and it's part of the pay-off we accept in return for jobs, markets, economies of scale, choice and convenience.
Ford has given its workers three years' notice and will I am sure provide good redundancies and assistance with training or job search.
Not that that doesn't mean that the next few years won't be awful for Ford workers. They will.
But the news of Ford's closure here has been greeted by most with a sort of sad inevitability. Even its workers were "shocked but not surprised".
Most people understand that manufacturing is increasingly difficult here. Few of those who commented agreed with this angry rant in The Age, for example. We all see what has happened over the years to manufacturing - and to cars. The days of the big corporate fleets and the big family sedan are over. Most people accept Ford's statement that manufacturing their cars in Australia is no longer affordable.
So what of the government's propping up of the car industry here with stimulus and assistance packages?
Well, there were reasons for those.
Firstly, while it's logically a waste of money to prop up losing industries, in practice it's not that simple. Whole industries can't just be cut off and left to fail without causing massive upheaval economically and socially. It's not just politically unsound to let that happen, it is wrong. So all reasonable governments end up spending too much on losing deals propping up failing industries, and are no doubt as irked at having to do so as the public are at having to bear the cost. (Though of course, the actual cost to any non-involved individual is close to nil, while the benefits of not having a huge industry suddenly fail are real).
Secondly, post-GFC, all governments in a position to do so threw money at stimulus programs to keep the economy moving, and that included much dubious spending, because the spending was more important than the product, at that time. No one was especially happy at propping up car manufacturers during this period, especially in the US where the government had already suffered the political fallout from propping up banks, and where the car company reps flew to Washington for their bailouts in their private jets.
But that's how it all works. Otherwise we'd be Greece.
Until 2011, I too worked for a US multinational, and I was made redundant after long months of uncertainty, stress and misery. The packages were good (not as generous as they had been in the past, but times had definitely changed), and the company provided a career counselling service which gave employees resume help and access to office space for a month.
I was not in the same industry as the workers facing redundancy at Ford. I was lucky to get another job in the same industry working with people and a company I knew well. So I don't pretend to be in the same boat. But say what you will about multinationals (and most of what you say is justified) - at least they are big enough to provide entitlements and protection to workers. Unlike small businesses, which tend to leave workers stranded when they go under.
I have quite fond childhood memories of being driven around in Ford sedans. My dad and grandfather loved Ford cars, and in the seventies my parents drove a Cortina, a Falcon, a Fairlane, and memorably in America, a huge Lincoln Continental.
The family sedan was good for Sunday drives to the Dandenongs and for family holidays. We drove to the Central Coast in New South Wales or the Gold Coast in Queensland, epic two or three-day family journeys involving car sickness, counting games, roadhouse stops, seat belts chafing against childhood necks, sweaty backs sticking to vinyl seats, and my sister and me sleeping with pillows propped against the armrest while we sped through the night.
My dream car when I was a kid was the red and white Ford Gran Torino in Starsky and Hutch.
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But those days are long gone. No one wants a sedan any more, and no one can afford to make them in this country.
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| by aidenjewell via Flickr |
Apr 8, 2013
The End of Cursive
Recently in a doctor's waiting room while flicking through a National Geographic I found a little article about the decline of cursive writing ('Disappearing Act', National Geographic, July 2012).
I learned cursive writing in school in the US where I went to primary school in 1979, 1980 and 1981 (Grades 4 and 5 and a bit of Grade 6).
Before that I'd been learning the simpler 'Victorian Modern Cursive' that is taught in schools in Australia - my kids are using it now.
On my first day of school in LA we were given a writing assignment, and I looked at the curly cursive letters on the board and freaked. I put my hand up and when my teacher came over I whispered, in shame and panic, that I couldn't do that kind of writing. She told me it was fine and to just use my normal writing. So naturally instead of doing that I invented some weird hybrid between the writing I knew and what I could see on the board, and I decided that I would be using the same writing as everyone else by the next day.
I don't write like this naturally anymore, but it easily comes back to me:
In 1982 I started school in New Zealand. I was in Form Two (grade six equivalent) and I think from memory they were doing some sort of cursive, but I was allowed to stick with my American writing which I did, though again I changed it a bit to fit in. I dropped the curly capitals for straight printed capitals, and I gradually dropped my cursive r's and s's for versions closer to print.
Once I was in high school, I don't think anyone cared how we wrote, as long as it was legible. At university, we took notes by hand in all lectures and tutorials, and all our essays were handwritten. I could write for hours before my hand cramped up, unlike now.
I now write in my own confused scrawl.
I write in Victorian Modern if I'm writing with my kids, but I still find it a funny, ugly-looking script. I always think it looks weird when I see adults writing it (people my age and younger). It looks like children's writing. And can I share how much I hate the lower-case p?
My kids are using the non-joined up version, and it's probably the only version they'll ever use.
These days, more schools are dropping cursive, as there is no longer any need for it. I'd be surprised if kids growing up now ever use handwriting in future for anything other than very short simple notes.
If you grew up learning cursive, your first reaction might be sadness or outrage at this calamity, but you would be wrong. You might be surprised to learn (as I was) that cursive only came about because it was the easiest way of writing with a quill and ink, to lift the pen off the page as little as possible. Ever since the printing press, cursive has been on a decline in favor of block printing (National Geographic, July 2012).
Even my American Palmer script is a simplified version which was no doubt reviled in its day. My mother writes her name in lovely old-fashioned cursive prettier than mine, and my grandmother used to have even lovelier handwriting.
So farewell, beautiful cursive. I'll miss you sometimes. You've given me some good memories. But times change and so does writing. If it didn't then where would we be?
I learned cursive writing in school in the US where I went to primary school in 1979, 1980 and 1981 (Grades 4 and 5 and a bit of Grade 6).
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| Palmer script as I learned it in the US as a child. I still remember it perfectly. |
Before that I'd been learning the simpler 'Victorian Modern Cursive' that is taught in schools in Australia - my kids are using it now.
 |
| Victorian Modern Cursive, from the back of my daughters' school writing books |
On my first day of school in LA we were given a writing assignment, and I looked at the curly cursive letters on the board and freaked. I put my hand up and when my teacher came over I whispered, in shame and panic, that I couldn't do that kind of writing. She told me it was fine and to just use my normal writing. So naturally instead of doing that I invented some weird hybrid between the writing I knew and what I could see on the board, and I decided that I would be using the same writing as everyone else by the next day.
I don't write like this naturally anymore, but it easily comes back to me:
In 1982 I started school in New Zealand. I was in Form Two (grade six equivalent) and I think from memory they were doing some sort of cursive, but I was allowed to stick with my American writing which I did, though again I changed it a bit to fit in. I dropped the curly capitals for straight printed capitals, and I gradually dropped my cursive r's and s's for versions closer to print.
Once I was in high school, I don't think anyone cared how we wrote, as long as it was legible. At university, we took notes by hand in all lectures and tutorials, and all our essays were handwritten. I could write for hours before my hand cramped up, unlike now.
I now write in my own confused scrawl.
I write in Victorian Modern if I'm writing with my kids, but I still find it a funny, ugly-looking script. I always think it looks weird when I see adults writing it (people my age and younger). It looks like children's writing. And can I share how much I hate the lower-case p?
My kids are using the non-joined up version, and it's probably the only version they'll ever use.
These days, more schools are dropping cursive, as there is no longer any need for it. I'd be surprised if kids growing up now ever use handwriting in future for anything other than very short simple notes.
If you grew up learning cursive, your first reaction might be sadness or outrage at this calamity, but you would be wrong. You might be surprised to learn (as I was) that cursive only came about because it was the easiest way of writing with a quill and ink, to lift the pen off the page as little as possible. Ever since the printing press, cursive has been on a decline in favor of block printing (National Geographic, July 2012).
Even my American Palmer script is a simplified version which was no doubt reviled in its day. My mother writes her name in lovely old-fashioned cursive prettier than mine, and my grandmother used to have even lovelier handwriting.
 |
| Spencerian script - via Wikipedia Commons. Beautiful but am I alone in associating this with drafty old school rooms and slaps with a wooden ruler? |
So farewell, beautiful cursive. I'll miss you sometimes. You've given me some good memories. But times change and so does writing. If it didn't then where would we be?
Apr 2, 2013
My TV Obsessions
The first one was Life on Mars. It was 2006 and I was often alone with two babies and at that stage I wasn't much into the internet. TV was my companion, and stuck in the house I watched a lot of it.
One night I stumbled onto this insanely good British mini series, a cop show with a twist. It was cool and dark and nostalgic without being camp or cute - there was no irony, just smart writing, a compelling plot and characters, and funny reminders of everyday life in the 1970's ("White dog shit," says Sam, staring at the footpath, "That takes me back.")
At that stage we had Foxtel (cut along with other non-essentials a couple of years later), and I think it was on UKTV. It was a repeat and they were screening each episode multiple times a week so I managed to catch most of the episodes of that first series over the next few weeks. Some time later, I bought series one and two on DVD - my first box set DVD series. The second series was as good as the first, and the ending was fantastic. I have to say, these British series that finish in two seasons are very satisfying.
I've watched Life on Mars probably 5 or 6 times - it was that good. I immersed myself in every episode and drank in every detail.
I spent some time briefly then with Vincent and Hustle, and got into Lost before abandoning it after two seasons in disgust. My next proper TV obsession was Mad Men. What's not to like? Everyone's favorite show and for good reason. I came to it late, as we'd cut Foxtel when it first came on and by the time it was screening on SBS some years later I couldn't get to the TV at the times it was on. I finally bought the first series on DVD, and was hooked immediately. I watched series two and three in quick succession, and finally got series four when it came out some time later. I have recently bought series five, but haven't watched it yet, as I've been diverted by other obsessions....
Next was Homeland. I don't think I'd ever been as riveted by a TV show as I was by Homeland. By this stage I had found Twitter and found some fellow obsessives who tweeted funny and insightful things about the show and likely plot points, and whether or not Damian Lewis is hot (he is). There were also criticisms of Homeland and it's portrayal of Islam, and fair enough - but it's not as gung-ho as 24 and only almost as ridiculous. Anyway, I loved it. The wait for series two seemed interminable.
But then I was done with season two of Homeland, and as season three was not coming any time soon, clearly I needed something else.
I was given two DVD box sets for my birthday last year: The Thick Of It and Boardwalk Empire. I had little knowledge of either, and it was a little while before I picked up Boardwalk Empire. I knew it was supposed to be good, but it didn't really grab me. But that was only until I started watching it.... Obsession triggered! I got through seasons one and two pretty quickly and since I couldn't buy season three in the shops yet, I read the episode synopses on IMDB (not really as satisfying, but you do what you have to do).
By this stage I was a convert to the DVD box set (yes, ten years after everyone else). So I went and bought myself Once Upon a Time, as I'd missed it on TV and wanted to see it. Excellent! New obsession underway! Only problem was, that one was quite expensive, as it was new to DVD when I bought it. So while I do want to see season two, I won't be rushing into it, as even I find it quite silly to spend $60 on a DVD season and I won't be doing that again.
So once that was over, I decided I needed a series that had been around for awhile, which I could pick up cheap and have a few seasons available if I liked it. And thus I found my way to my current TV obsession, picking up season one for $20 and then quickly returning for seasons two, three and four:
OH MY GOD. Is this THE best TV show ever made, or WHAT?
Actually I can't tell if it is or not - maybe it's just my current obsession. You see, when I'm in the middle of one of these, I have zero interest in any other TV show. My previous TV obsessions fade to dim memory. Why is that? Well, you might respond, because you are a sad individual who needs to get out more. I will not argue that point, but I also think it is due to these factors:
But anyway, there are specific extra reasons why Breaking Bad is my current addiction.
The premise is original and really well executed. The transformation of Walt from put-upon good guy to evil drug kingpin is compelling. The viewer goes from loving him to finding him firstly a bit off-putting, then unlikable and finally quite loathsome. His appearance changes too, so that by season four he is unrecognizable from how he was in season one. The protagonist starts off a good guy and ends up a really bad guy. I don't think there's been anything like it on TV before.
Plus it is funny. There's Jesse ("Yeah Mr White! Yeah Science!"). And there are scenes like this one from the season four finale, when Walt faces off against his crooked lawyer Saul's assistant:
So at the moment I am HOOKED on Breaking Bad and I have no interest in any other show, including series 5 of Mad Men (sitting unwatched on my bookshelf) or hunting down series 3-5 of Boardwalk Empire.
ALL I care about is Walter White, Jesse, Skyler, Hank, Marie, Mike and Saul, and getting hold of season 5!
Meantime, I've read the synopses of every episode on IMDB, and watched every trailer and promo I can find on YouTube. So I know everything that happens, but still I am hungry for more. I must have season five!
Last night, in desperation, I bought season five on iTunes.
24 hours later, the first 3 episodes are still downloading, and my laptop is hot enough to fry eggs on. Will I blow up my computer in my obsession??
Meantime enjoy this Hardly Working video - which unfortunately I can't embed but which includes very good Jesse and Walt impressions, and which proves it's not just me addicted to Breaking Bad.
One night I stumbled onto this insanely good British mini series, a cop show with a twist. It was cool and dark and nostalgic without being camp or cute - there was no irony, just smart writing, a compelling plot and characters, and funny reminders of everyday life in the 1970's ("White dog shit," says Sam, staring at the footpath, "That takes me back.")
At that stage we had Foxtel (cut along with other non-essentials a couple of years later), and I think it was on UKTV. It was a repeat and they were screening each episode multiple times a week so I managed to catch most of the episodes of that first series over the next few weeks. Some time later, I bought series one and two on DVD - my first box set DVD series. The second series was as good as the first, and the ending was fantastic. I have to say, these British series that finish in two seasons are very satisfying.
I've watched Life on Mars probably 5 or 6 times - it was that good. I immersed myself in every episode and drank in every detail.
I spent some time briefly then with Vincent and Hustle, and got into Lost before abandoning it after two seasons in disgust. My next proper TV obsession was Mad Men. What's not to like? Everyone's favorite show and for good reason. I came to it late, as we'd cut Foxtel when it first came on and by the time it was screening on SBS some years later I couldn't get to the TV at the times it was on. I finally bought the first series on DVD, and was hooked immediately. I watched series two and three in quick succession, and finally got series four when it came out some time later. I have recently bought series five, but haven't watched it yet, as I've been diverted by other obsessions....
Next was Homeland. I don't think I'd ever been as riveted by a TV show as I was by Homeland. By this stage I had found Twitter and found some fellow obsessives who tweeted funny and insightful things about the show and likely plot points, and whether or not Damian Lewis is hot (he is). There were also criticisms of Homeland and it's portrayal of Islam, and fair enough - but it's not as gung-ho as 24 and only almost as ridiculous. Anyway, I loved it. The wait for series two seemed interminable.
But then I was done with season two of Homeland, and as season three was not coming any time soon, clearly I needed something else.
I was given two DVD box sets for my birthday last year: The Thick Of It and Boardwalk Empire. I had little knowledge of either, and it was a little while before I picked up Boardwalk Empire. I knew it was supposed to be good, but it didn't really grab me. But that was only until I started watching it.... Obsession triggered! I got through seasons one and two pretty quickly and since I couldn't buy season three in the shops yet, I read the episode synopses on IMDB (not really as satisfying, but you do what you have to do).
By this stage I was a convert to the DVD box set (yes, ten years after everyone else). So I went and bought myself Once Upon a Time, as I'd missed it on TV and wanted to see it. Excellent! New obsession underway! Only problem was, that one was quite expensive, as it was new to DVD when I bought it. So while I do want to see season two, I won't be rushing into it, as even I find it quite silly to spend $60 on a DVD season and I won't be doing that again.
So once that was over, I decided I needed a series that had been around for awhile, which I could pick up cheap and have a few seasons available if I liked it. And thus I found my way to my current TV obsession, picking up season one for $20 and then quickly returning for seasons two, three and four:
 |
| "I am not in danger. I AM the danger!" |
OH MY GOD. Is this THE best TV show ever made, or WHAT?
Actually I can't tell if it is or not - maybe it's just my current obsession. You see, when I'm in the middle of one of these, I have zero interest in any other TV show. My previous TV obsessions fade to dim memory. Why is that? Well, you might respond, because you are a sad individual who needs to get out more. I will not argue that point, but I also think it is due to these factors:
1. Golden Age of Television. It has often been said we are enjoying a golden age of television, marked by original, clever writing and high production values. From The Sopranos onwards, TV drama series have never been so good. I don't think I found myself getting so obsessive before this, when the best that was out there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
2. Limited time for television. Unlike the old days (before children), these days I have very limited time for TV and whether I am scrambling to watch Homeland at 8.30, watching something on DVD or catching a missed episode on the free-to-air channel web viewers, I only have room in my life for ONE television show at a time. (OK, one plus Modern Family, which is my comedy extra). So that one television show has got to be extra good. And if they are extra good, they are addictive.
3. Fragmented attention span. The Internets have destroyed my concentration! I am still reading books, but fewer of them as my time is increasingly eaten away by Twitter, online news sites and, um, playing stupid games on my phone. Somehow at the end of a long day, a DVD is the easiest, most enjoyable option. It's not just me. DVD box sets and downloading of TV series are booming. Can you even believe we used to wait a whole week between episodes in the olden days, when we watched shows on TV?
But anyway, there are specific extra reasons why Breaking Bad is my current addiction.
The premise is original and really well executed. The transformation of Walt from put-upon good guy to evil drug kingpin is compelling. The viewer goes from loving him to finding him firstly a bit off-putting, then unlikable and finally quite loathsome. His appearance changes too, so that by season four he is unrecognizable from how he was in season one. The protagonist starts off a good guy and ends up a really bad guy. I don't think there's been anything like it on TV before.
Plus it is funny. There's Jesse ("Yeah Mr White! Yeah Science!"). And there are scenes like this one from the season four finale, when Walt faces off against his crooked lawyer Saul's assistant:
Saul's assistant is shredding office documents, all the while ignoring the ringing telephone. There's a pounding at the front door, then the sound of shattering glass. It is Walter, who has broken in in hopes of locating Saul. Tired of another Walter White "emergency" she tells him he can have Saul's number for $20,000. Walter argues. She tells him $25,000. Walt advances on her menacingly, pauses, then says: "I'll be right back". He scrambles back through the broken door and goes to get her money.
So at the moment I am HOOKED on Breaking Bad and I have no interest in any other show, including series 5 of Mad Men (sitting unwatched on my bookshelf) or hunting down series 3-5 of Boardwalk Empire.
ALL I care about is Walter White, Jesse, Skyler, Hank, Marie, Mike and Saul, and getting hold of season 5!
Meantime, I've read the synopses of every episode on IMDB, and watched every trailer and promo I can find on YouTube. So I know everything that happens, but still I am hungry for more. I must have season five!
Last night, in desperation, I bought season five on iTunes.
24 hours later, the first 3 episodes are still downloading, and my laptop is hot enough to fry eggs on. Will I blow up my computer in my obsession??
Meantime enjoy this Hardly Working video - which unfortunately I can't embed but which includes very good Jesse and Walt impressions, and which proves it's not just me addicted to Breaking Bad.
Do you have DVD obsessions? What's your current one?
Sep 9, 2012
Listography: Top 5 Songs I Grew Up To
I've missed the last couple, but it's Listography time again - yay!
Listography is run by Kate Takes 5. This time the theme is songs we grew up with.
Here are mine - but man, it's impossible to stop at five...
MEMORY BONUS: the video has the cat dresses!!
Was not keen on mullet-headed Rod dancing around the stage in tights during this period, but my older cousin was in love with him.
MEMORY BONUS: like most videos of the time, contains a soft-focus image of a blonde lady with very glossy red lips
MEMORY BONUS: the girl in the video is wearing stretch chambray pedal pushers!
Watching it now it is funny how completely UNsexy the video is.
MEMORY BONUS: sweatbands!
Joe Dolci, Shaddap You Face
Leo Sayer, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Adam Ant, Goody Two Shoes
Shakin Stevens, Behind the Green Door
David Bowie, Putting Out Fire With Gasoline
Tears for Fears, Shout
Real Life, Send Me An Angel
Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights
Tim Finn, There's a Fraction Too Much Friction (shut up, I liked it)
Stevie Wonder, I Just Called To Say I Love You
John Denver, Country Roads
Neil Diamond, Holly Holy, I Am I Said
Air Supply, Making Love Out of Nothing At All
Carly Simon, You're So Vain
Helen Reddy, I Am Woman
Johnny Mathis, Chances Are
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Simon and Garfunkel,The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa
Fleetwood Mac, Dreams, Second Hand News, Rhiannon
Peaches and Herb, Shake Your Groove Thing
Chic, Le Freak
Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive
Dave Dobbyn, Slice of Heaven
Billy Idol, Rebel Yell
Billy Joel, Piano Man, Allentown
James Taylor, Witchita Lineman
Elvis Presley, In the Ghetto
Suzie Quattro, Devilgate Drive
Queen, Another One Bites The Dust
Blondie, Call Me
Madonna, Into The Groove
Sheena Easton, Morning Train
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Islands In the Stream
Prince, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Sign O' The Times
Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown
America, Horse With No Name
Little River Band, Lonesome Loser
Juice Newton, Queen of Hearts
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock and Roll
The Go-Gos, Our Lips Are Sealed
Aha, Take On Me
Wham, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (shut up, you know you did too)
Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf
Coconut Rough, Sierra Leone
The Police, Every Breath You Take
Toto, Africa
Laura Branigan, Gloria
Dire Straits, I Want My MTV
... I think I now need to load up my iTunes with some of these.
Listography is run by Kate Takes 5. This time the theme is songs we grew up with.
Here are mine - but man, it's impossible to stop at five...
Abba, Hasta Manana
It wasn't their best, but it was very popular in Australia in the 70s, and was often heard in the background during musical chairs games at kids' parties, or on TV sung by an earnest child in a dinner jacket on Young Talent Time. It was also the first words of a foreign language I learned. My dad had travelled South America on business and told me Hasta Manana meant 'Until tomorrow' - he was so learned and sophisticated...MEMORY BONUS: the video has the cat dresses!!
Rod Stewart, Do You Think I'm Sexy?
Massively popular song in the mid-to-late 70s, and I still like it.Was not keen on mullet-headed Rod dancing around the stage in tights during this period, but my older cousin was in love with him.
MEMORY BONUS: like most videos of the time, contains a soft-focus image of a blonde lady with very glossy red lips
Michael Jackson, Thriller
The mini-movie video; the scary special effects; the dancing; Vincent Price and the way he pronounced "eeeeviiilll".... It was revolutionary! It is also entwined forever in my memory with my cousin's jealousy-inducing new "ghetto blaster" which had TWO tape decks and the impressive new "soft eject" feature. Technology overload!MEMORY BONUS: the girl in the video is wearing stretch chambray pedal pushers!
The Knack, My Sharona
This has very specific memories for me. When I was 10 and 11 we lived in Los Angeles and I went to Jean Thorman elementary school in Tustin. The school was connected to a junior high school campus, and on some mornings before school my best friend Teresa and I would go and sit there and listen to the songs the high school kids played on the jukebox. (Yes, they had a jukebox). As it was 1980, the songs were always either Devo, Whip It, or The Knack, My Sharona. Still love them both.
Olivia Newton John, Physical
Olivia Newton John had been trying for some time to shake off her "good girl" image, but it was this that finally did it. 1981 - we were all in shock. SHOCK I tell you! The suggestive body language (for then, and for her, it was), and those SHOCKING lyrics: "you know what I mean", and even worse, "horizontally" - oh my gosh.Watching it now it is funny how completely UNsexy the video is.
MEMORY BONUS: sweatbands!
Honorable mentions - another 5, ok 6:
Johnnie Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band, Black Superman (Muhammad Ali). MOHAMMAD ALI. He was huge. He had a song about him!
Jim Croce, You Don't Mess Around With Jim. Family drives in the Ford sedan. Silver seat belt buckles burning hot from the sun. 8-track. Whole family singing.
Abba, When I Kissed the Teacher, Voulez Vous, Money Money Money...Jim Croce, You Don't Mess Around With Jim. Family drives in the Ford sedan. Silver seat belt buckles burning hot from the sun. 8-track. Whole family singing.
Phil Collins, In The Air Tonight. 1985: Live Aid!
Sting, Russians . Cold War memories.
Men At Work, Downunder. 1983. Australia winning the America's Cup. Vegemite earrings. Australian flag tote bags. And this song everywhere.
Split Enz, Six Months In A Leaky Boat - I was 12, living in New Zealand, and this was banned on the radio during the Falkland Wars. Oh, such different times...
And the rest:
Joe Dolci, Shaddap You Face
Leo Sayer, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Adam Ant, Goody Two Shoes
Shakin Stevens, Behind the Green Door
David Bowie, Putting Out Fire With Gasoline
Tears for Fears, Shout
Real Life, Send Me An Angel
Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights
Tim Finn, There's a Fraction Too Much Friction (shut up, I liked it)
Stevie Wonder, I Just Called To Say I Love You
John Denver, Country Roads
Neil Diamond, Holly Holy, I Am I Said
Air Supply, Making Love Out of Nothing At All
Carly Simon, You're So Vain
Helen Reddy, I Am Woman
Johnny Mathis, Chances Are
Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Simon and Garfunkel,The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa
Fleetwood Mac, Dreams, Second Hand News, Rhiannon
Peaches and Herb, Shake Your Groove Thing
Chic, Le Freak
Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive
Dave Dobbyn, Slice of Heaven
Billy Idol, Rebel Yell
Billy Joel, Piano Man, Allentown
James Taylor, Witchita Lineman
Elvis Presley, In the Ghetto
Suzie Quattro, Devilgate Drive
Queen, Another One Bites The Dust
Blondie, Call Me
Madonna, Into The Groove
Sheena Easton, Morning Train
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, Islands In the Stream
Prince, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, Sign O' The Times
Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown
America, Horse With No Name
Little River Band, Lonesome Loser
Juice Newton, Queen of Hearts
Kim Carnes, Bette Davis Eyes
Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, I Love Rock and Roll
The Go-Gos, Our Lips Are Sealed
Aha, Take On Me
Wham, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (shut up, you know you did too)
Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf
Coconut Rough, Sierra Leone
The Police, Every Breath You Take
Toto, Africa
Laura Branigan, Gloria
Dire Straits, I Want My MTV
... I think I now need to load up my iTunes with some of these.
Your turn! What are your top 5?
Join the linky here:
Dec 6, 2010
My Grandfather and the History of Seat Belts in Victoria
Today is my grandfather's 90th birthday.
He's my only surviving grandparent and this is not surprising - he is a big, tall man and has always been as strong as an ox.
At 49 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and had three-quarters of a lung removed. He and my grandmother moved from Melbourne to the Central Coast of New South Wales for its milder, wamer climate, after his operation.
In those days there was just the operation - no radiation, no chemotherapy, nothing else. I have no idea what the cancer survival rate was like for this type of operation back then, but no doubt my grandfather was lucky to stick around.
Today my father and aunt and my mother hosted a birthday for my grandfather. Though the family is small, five generations were there - the only time since my grandparents' 60th anniversary that all the family had got together and the first time my daughters had met some of their family.
My father made a speech which praised Pop's skill on the golf course - three hole in ones - and his feats in business. Pop worked most of his career for an Australian car part company which used to be a big manufacturer and these days is a chain of retail outlets. In the 1960s and 70s Pop was in large part personally responsible for getting seat belts made mandatory in cars in Victoria (and by extension, later Australia). Recognising the need to get seat belts backed by legislation to make them profitable, Pop got his company together with the other two companies that manufactured car parts in Australia at the time, and suggested they pool resources to get legislation happening. Through a canny mix of government lobbying, advertising and public relations campaigns he and his colleagues created something which has become a natural part of driving in this country, and which has also saved many lives.
We all joke with Pop as we know, and he readily admits, that the seat belt campaign was a business strategy to secure a market and make money. But, as he campaigned and lobbied and demonstrated the effectiveness of seatbelts, and as he worked with the manufacturers to improve the technology, safety and comfort of the belts over time, it also became something he believed in very passionately, and he spent a good part of his ensuing career continuing this work and advocating for the safety and necessity of seat belts.
He has some good stories to tell. He had a couple of colleagues who demonstrated the selt belts' effectiveness at trade shows by being human crash test dummies, driving a car into a barrier then jumping out and exclaiming something like "I'm fine! Thanks to my seat belt!" At one show the guy limped out moaning "I think I've broken a rib" and Pop said "well keep quiet about it for god's sake!" and got him to wave to the crowd. Aah, the good old days...
It was interesting to hear about the science that went into the development and improvement of seat belts.
I know that sentence could sound strange when read alone - but as my mother taught me, everything is interesting when you look into it.
In the beginning the seat belts were lap sashes only, and made of nylon.
Very quickly it was found that another strap was needed, as test dummies and real people were still hitting their heads when strapped in at the waist. The strap diagonally across the chest was added as a compromise between safety, cost and convenience - in those days they were not yet mandatory and so had to be saleable, which meant they had to be comfortable and able to be put on with the minimum of effort. Tests had shown that the double harness seatbelt (similar to what goes over your head and chest on a roller coaster) was the safest seat belt possible - but it was too expensive to produce and off-putting to consumers, who at that time wanted to just get in their automobiles and enjoy a drive as a carefree and stylish experience.
In the 1960's cars were still not designed to take seat belts, so belts had to be designed to be fitted to the cars. Thus the major challenge then was to design belts that were safe but also comfortable. With the addition of the diagonal strap across the chest, because of the way the belts had to be attached to the cars, the new strap tended to dig into the throat - so the challenge was on to design something more comfortable. It was also recognised that cars had to be designed to incorporate the seat belts, for real advances to be made.
Seat belts were invented in the US in the 1880's, but Volvo introduced the modern seat belt in 1959. Extensive research and development went into seat belts, using people and technology from aerospace engineering. Pop told us how the buckles were designed with the press-release technology using just the right amount of give, as it was found that the most that a human being could comfortably press with one finger was 37 pounds pressure. He told us how the straps had to be designed to withstand 400 pounds of pressure which is what is brought to bear by a human body in a crash.
The improvements continued. The nylon was found to deteriorate over time from exposure to sunlight, so other materials were tested and tetralene was adopted, eventually replaced by the polyester or polypropylene used today.
As Pop's company was heavily involved in the development of seat belts in Australia, they had access to overseas developments but as a manufacturer they also did their own research and development, and made continuous improvements to the belts to get a workable balance between safety and marketability. After seat belts were made mandatory in Victoria in 1970, they continued to improve the belts in response to consumer and vehicle manufacturer experience, to improve safety and cost, and to convince the rest of the country on their necessity.
Pop travelled to Detroit for trade shows (as my brother-in-law observed today, imagine the excitement and beauty of all the new cars in Detroit in the late 1960s!). In Australia he appeared on a television talk show where the host argued against the mandatory adoption of seat belts, using an anecdote about a friend of his who had run off the road and was thrown from his car before it crashed - which would not have happened had he been wearing a seat belt. Pop responded, "If you want to design an accident, we can design a seat belt to suit it."
Another argument often made was that seat belts were inconvenient or uncomfortable; people asked, "Do you have to wear it all the time?" Pop's response was: "You don't have to wear it all the time. You just have to be wearing it a few seconds before you crash."
Funny how things bring back memories. When I was a child in the 1970s there was still some occasional argument about seat belts, and in 1979 when we moved to the States (where belts were not mandatory but the conversation was taking place), the same arguments came up - the belts were uncomfortable and inconvenient, and in some accidents you would be safer without one. (In the US there was an additional argument that we didn't have in Australia: making seat belts [or anything] mandatory was an infringement on freedom of choice).
Those arguments belong mostly to history now. It is an accepted notion that seat belts save lives and must be worn while driving. Victoria was the first jurisdiction in the world to make the wearing of seat belts in cars mandatory. Other states and countries followed as the safety benefits became clear, and the wearing of selt belts is now mandatory in most industrialised countries.
And my Pop did that!
From Wikipedia, courtesy of Ask.com:
"In Victoria, Australia the use of seat belts became compulsory in 1970. By 1974 decreases of 37% in deaths and 41% in injuries, including a decrease of 27% in spinal injuries, were observed, compared with extrapolations based on pre-law trends.
...By 2009, despite large increases in population and the number of vehicles, road deaths in Victoria had fallen below 300, less than a third of the 1970 level, the lowest since records were kept, and far below the per capita rate in jurisdictions such as the United States. This reduction was generally attributed to aggressive road safety campaigns beginning with the seat belt laws."
- http://www.ask.com/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation
He's my only surviving grandparent and this is not surprising - he is a big, tall man and has always been as strong as an ox.
At 49 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and had three-quarters of a lung removed. He and my grandmother moved from Melbourne to the Central Coast of New South Wales for its milder, wamer climate, after his operation.
In those days there was just the operation - no radiation, no chemotherapy, nothing else. I have no idea what the cancer survival rate was like for this type of operation back then, but no doubt my grandfather was lucky to stick around.
Today my father and aunt and my mother hosted a birthday for my grandfather. Though the family is small, five generations were there - the only time since my grandparents' 60th anniversary that all the family had got together and the first time my daughters had met some of their family.
My father made a speech which praised Pop's skill on the golf course - three hole in ones - and his feats in business. Pop worked most of his career for an Australian car part company which used to be a big manufacturer and these days is a chain of retail outlets. In the 1960s and 70s Pop was in large part personally responsible for getting seat belts made mandatory in cars in Victoria (and by extension, later Australia). Recognising the need to get seat belts backed by legislation to make them profitable, Pop got his company together with the other two companies that manufactured car parts in Australia at the time, and suggested they pool resources to get legislation happening. Through a canny mix of government lobbying, advertising and public relations campaigns he and his colleagues created something which has become a natural part of driving in this country, and which has also saved many lives.
We all joke with Pop as we know, and he readily admits, that the seat belt campaign was a business strategy to secure a market and make money. But, as he campaigned and lobbied and demonstrated the effectiveness of seatbelts, and as he worked with the manufacturers to improve the technology, safety and comfort of the belts over time, it also became something he believed in very passionately, and he spent a good part of his ensuing career continuing this work and advocating for the safety and necessity of seat belts.
He has some good stories to tell. He had a couple of colleagues who demonstrated the selt belts' effectiveness at trade shows by being human crash test dummies, driving a car into a barrier then jumping out and exclaiming something like "I'm fine! Thanks to my seat belt!" At one show the guy limped out moaning "I think I've broken a rib" and Pop said "well keep quiet about it for god's sake!" and got him to wave to the crowd. Aah, the good old days...
It was interesting to hear about the science that went into the development and improvement of seat belts.
I know that sentence could sound strange when read alone - but as my mother taught me, everything is interesting when you look into it.
In the beginning the seat belts were lap sashes only, and made of nylon.
Very quickly it was found that another strap was needed, as test dummies and real people were still hitting their heads when strapped in at the waist. The strap diagonally across the chest was added as a compromise between safety, cost and convenience - in those days they were not yet mandatory and so had to be saleable, which meant they had to be comfortable and able to be put on with the minimum of effort. Tests had shown that the double harness seatbelt (similar to what goes over your head and chest on a roller coaster) was the safest seat belt possible - but it was too expensive to produce and off-putting to consumers, who at that time wanted to just get in their automobiles and enjoy a drive as a carefree and stylish experience.
In the 1960's cars were still not designed to take seat belts, so belts had to be designed to be fitted to the cars. Thus the major challenge then was to design belts that were safe but also comfortable. With the addition of the diagonal strap across the chest, because of the way the belts had to be attached to the cars, the new strap tended to dig into the throat - so the challenge was on to design something more comfortable. It was also recognised that cars had to be designed to incorporate the seat belts, for real advances to be made.
Seat belts were invented in the US in the 1880's, but Volvo introduced the modern seat belt in 1959. Extensive research and development went into seat belts, using people and technology from aerospace engineering. Pop told us how the buckles were designed with the press-release technology using just the right amount of give, as it was found that the most that a human being could comfortably press with one finger was 37 pounds pressure. He told us how the straps had to be designed to withstand 400 pounds of pressure which is what is brought to bear by a human body in a crash.
The improvements continued. The nylon was found to deteriorate over time from exposure to sunlight, so other materials were tested and tetralene was adopted, eventually replaced by the polyester or polypropylene used today.
As Pop's company was heavily involved in the development of seat belts in Australia, they had access to overseas developments but as a manufacturer they also did their own research and development, and made continuous improvements to the belts to get a workable balance between safety and marketability. After seat belts were made mandatory in Victoria in 1970, they continued to improve the belts in response to consumer and vehicle manufacturer experience, to improve safety and cost, and to convince the rest of the country on their necessity.
Pop travelled to Detroit for trade shows (as my brother-in-law observed today, imagine the excitement and beauty of all the new cars in Detroit in the late 1960s!). In Australia he appeared on a television talk show where the host argued against the mandatory adoption of seat belts, using an anecdote about a friend of his who had run off the road and was thrown from his car before it crashed - which would not have happened had he been wearing a seat belt. Pop responded, "If you want to design an accident, we can design a seat belt to suit it."
Another argument often made was that seat belts were inconvenient or uncomfortable; people asked, "Do you have to wear it all the time?" Pop's response was: "You don't have to wear it all the time. You just have to be wearing it a few seconds before you crash."
Funny how things bring back memories. When I was a child in the 1970s there was still some occasional argument about seat belts, and in 1979 when we moved to the States (where belts were not mandatory but the conversation was taking place), the same arguments came up - the belts were uncomfortable and inconvenient, and in some accidents you would be safer without one. (In the US there was an additional argument that we didn't have in Australia: making seat belts [or anything] mandatory was an infringement on freedom of choice).
Those arguments belong mostly to history now. It is an accepted notion that seat belts save lives and must be worn while driving. Victoria was the first jurisdiction in the world to make the wearing of seat belts in cars mandatory. Other states and countries followed as the safety benefits became clear, and the wearing of selt belts is now mandatory in most industrialised countries.
And my Pop did that!
From Wikipedia, courtesy of Ask.com:
"In Victoria, Australia the use of seat belts became compulsory in 1970. By 1974 decreases of 37% in deaths and 41% in injuries, including a decrease of 27% in spinal injuries, were observed, compared with extrapolations based on pre-law trends.
...By 2009, despite large increases in population and the number of vehicles, road deaths in Victoria had fallen below 300, less than a third of the 1970 level, the lowest since records were kept, and far below the per capita rate in jurisdictions such as the United States. This reduction was generally attributed to aggressive road safety campaigns beginning with the seat belt laws."
- http://www.ask.com/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation
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| Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
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