This might be worth a watch tonight on Prime at 7 30 07:30PM Electric Dreams (G) A social experiment where a family is taken back to the technological digital dark ages of 1970s and over 6 weeks introduced to every new gadget of the next 3 decades. How will their lives change?
Do they start off in Invercargill where they sleep in sheds and make pistons and head North to the technology hub of Auckland?
Do they start off in Invercargill where they sleep in sheds and make pistons and head North to the technology hub of Auckland? No they start off in a motorcamp in Taumarunui
I watched it.... I could live in the 70's......Nortons, Aussie cars, decent rock bands........ England on the other hand looked pretty bleak compared to here.
I didn't need to watch it. I was there....
Then the Poms came over here,and took over our unions...and tried to make NZ just like the UK,with strikes and stuff.I liked the jokes though - ''How many Poms can you fit into a Mini''....Make one the foreman and the rest will crawl up his arse''.
ONe of theRadio Stations had a promotion " Punch a Pom a Day".... and yes they were a moaning lot....." theres nothing to do here.....the shops are closed on the weekends....the pubs close at 10 during the week.....cars are expensive.....and so on" In 1970 we had a house, a Morris 1800, a phone, a fridge....not sure if it had a freezer......and a b and w tele with one channel....and a vacuum cleaner...a mono radiogram....that was about all there was to have. I rememeber during school holidays tuning into the kids program on the wireless....and playing with my Lego ( got oveseas)..... thymple times...
My brother was in England when the Punch a Pom a Day was reported there - he was beaten up on the way home from the pub,and had his teeth badly repaired on the National Health.In 1970 we had a fridge and no freezer,a valve radio on top of the fridge,a ringer washing machine,a B&W TV,a Masport Iron Horse...and Mum had a '68 Mini.
The tech job looks fun, Finding 40 year old gadgets on ebay and getting them working again The bloke was moaning about the cortina gear change and brakes, should have given him a drum brake , column change 1200 (pre crossflow?) poverty pack model and let him have a upgrade in 1973 Dad was impressed at the Choppers, and his kids thought they were cool too, I have got a brand new Tee Shifter for one in my shed somewere Will prep for the 80's episode. I will go to my olds in the weekend and see if my ZX81 is still stashed away in the back shed, I think it had a printer, tape deck and software too, used to take 15 or so minutes to load the TREX Maze game and crash at 12mins usaully
I saw my first calculator in 1977 when my girlfriend (the now Mrs Motu) got one imported from Fiji as under the counter payment for maths tuition.In the workshop we bought a 1/2in impact gun,and a timing light.We had some tunescopes demoed,but the boss rigged some faults which they didn't pick up,so sent the reps packing.We got an old 4 post hoist,then a new 2 post - so in our 4 bay workshop we had a pit and 2 hoists - guess who worked in the only bay with nothing?
My Auntie from Boston cam over in 1976 and she brought a 'cassette player' with a Cat Stevens tape.....summit for the Tillerman....and an led display Texas Instruments calculator........that was cool..... we could listen to Cat anywhere and write things like Shell Oil and Boobs with leds......not much use for school as they were banned....schools were so porgressive in the 70's. In 1978 at Tech we had to buy calculators...a TI 55....from a special 'technology shop" for about $300 odd.....that would have been two weeks wages for a trademan......
Remember calculator watches? The people that had them were so proud All I could see was a big lump of ugly plastic on their wrist and by the time you got a pencil to tap out the tiny keys you could have worked it out already.
After watching that I have come to the conclusion that my house is in some sort of time vortex, 'cause that is pretty much what it is like at home My kids are going to hate me when they realise what they are missing out on..........
Its the 80's tonight What will be there "New" car ? Place bets now !
Mk 4 Cortina then Sierra..... I've got a bottle of Steinlager and twisties to watch it with....hmmm that could be now doh.
