How is life different today?

Oh, the changes I’ve seen in 93 years! When I was young, only rich people had cars. I was 37 before I got my first car and license. We used to go shopping with a string bag because that’s all we could afford - and usually there wasn’t enough to fill it anyway. You’d cook by the day, go to the butchers and ask ‘What can I afford to buy for dinner?’ The wages were about five pounds a week for females, maybe seven for men.

The changes in everyday life are incredible. When I first moved to Wishart Street in 1960, we had no hot water service. I was using a kerosene heater - I was frightened about burning the house down many times, but I managed to work it. It was like living a bush life in the city! When there was a big strike and the gas was turned off, I had to get creative - got a couple of small stoves and cooked dinner on them, rigged up a bush shower in the bathroom using a huge plastic bottle.

I feel a bit sad for young people growing up today. Everything on TV seems negative to me. Poor children are living in such a sad world, hearing about global warming and doomsday scenarios. We’ve had things like that happening before - I’ve seen so many “doomsdays” come and go in my 92 years, and we’re all still here.

I have to blame technology, I must admit. When I was young, we didn’t even get a radio in the house until I was seven. We made our own fun - playing cowboys and Indians, making our own bows and arrows. These days, I see people walking past my window with children in prams and dogs, but they’ve got these blasted radios in their ears. There’s no talking anymore. When I had my children in the pram, I was always talking to them and teaching them things.

The mothers today complain about having to walk their children to school because they can’t use the car - I think about how I walked five children everywhere for years! There was no driving to school and clogging up the roads putting little darlings up to school in the mornings. My kids had to walk from my place to Sandy Tech in the morning, run home at lunchtime because I wouldn’t have had enough bread for their lunches, then run back to school and home again after. They were the best at running at school because they were the fittest!

Today’s parents get so much help in comparison. I had to get permission off a man, the manager, just to get school clothes. I’d make do - cutting down Jack’s old Fletcher Jones pants to make school pants for the boys, just putting elastic in the waist because I couldn’t manage zips. The girls today can’t do that because they’ve never had to. They just sit down and say ‘I can’t use the car’ or ‘I can’t drive to the shops.’ But back then, you just had to be innovative and make do with what you had. That’s what made us strong.

The way people handle money is so different now. During the big depression back in the 1930s, people were leaping out of windows and committing suicide when the banks closed down. But here I was, back in the day, walking past a cake shop, seeing beautiful cream puffs and thinking ‘Oh no, I can buy a loaf of bread and a pint of milk with the money that costs.’ As long as you’ve got enough money for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk, you’re going okay - that was my motto.

But there have been positive changes too, especially for women. I’ve seen tremendous progress from the days of the suffragettes to having women as Prime Ministers. When Queen Elizabeth became queen at 25, it was such an achievement for women. Young people today can’t believe some of the stories I tell them about discrimination in the workplace, even in the 1970s. We’re running on a more equal level now, though there’s still some discrimination in various jobs.

It’s funny now - I’m ending my life with what I always wanted. I’m living like a millionaire! I’m in the best room in the place, I’ve got enough money to pay for it all, and I could buy a dozen cream puffs if I wanted to. Things have changed so much. With my life of 93 years, I’ve seen things that weren’t around when I was growing up that are all here now. From using string bags for shopping because plastic wasn’t invented yet, to watching people pay for everything with cards - it’s quite amazing when you think about it. I went from rags to riches, really. And I’m very grateful for it.

That’s what I try to tell young people - yes, there are challenges today, but we’ve come so far. Sometimes they’re amazed when I mention these things because they just think it’s been like this forever. It’s important they know both how far we’ve come and how much joy there still is in life if you look for it.