In Great Great Grandmother's Day... — Margaret Chapman

We live in the twenty-first century….conventional products of the age... using, consuming, expecting and demanding. We groan if the car does not start… if we run out of sliced bread or soap-powder. We expect out beds to be heated, our food to be frozen or cooked and our laundry to be done with the minimum of attention from ourselves. We demand light and warmth and entertainment at the flick of a switch. Our children accept these present-day benefits as of right….We as parents accept too, but vaguely recall a time before drip-dry shirts and polythene bags; when televisions were not compulsory and pastry was rubbed from flour and lard at the kitchen table. But even we parents cannot remember when aeroplanes were not a feature in our lives, when cornflakes were unknown, when carpets were swept by hand and monopoly was yet to be invented. How did they cope then without telephones or cars….without aspirins or tins of beans or tooth-paste? What was it like with only a kitchen range for cooking and every drop of hot water coming from a constantly simmering kettle on the hob? When hatters and glovers were everyday occupations…when Magic Lanterns were enthralling novelties…when contraception was in its infancy and most immunisations still in the future…and electricity in the home was not ordinarily aspired to… What was it like?... Are text-books dwelling on privations, too materialistic?....Are old ladies in recalling the past affectionately, looking back through rose-tinted glasses….? We who were born too late, into a different generation, can only imagine…