Thursday, June 23, 2011

Antiques of the Future

Just the other day, I was cruising around here on the net, when I read a thread in Bookcrossing about antiques that are going to around in the future.  It got me thinking about what would be considered an antique by Gen-Y standards; seeing we have our own types of antiques now.
I took a look around my house and realised that most of the stuff I own would be considered antiques by the time I get older.  All the books I own would be available in an e-reader format by the time I get around to reading them all (yeah, I did a book count recently and I've collected 929 books in 8 1/2 years!  Amazing, eh?).  I've also got vinyls, cassette tapes and magazines; which will all be completely outdated by the time I'm old and grey.  So, will they be seen as antiques?  What about the good old typewriter?  That's already gone to the way of the do-do as it is; seeing how kids who go to school look at them now.
I remember when I was in Melbourne years ago for medical tests for a possible operation, the professor who was the head of these tests came in for a visit and he brought along his daughter.  She was dressed warmly as it was at this time of the year and it was freezing cold outside the hospital.  She saw my typewriter (as I didn't have a laptop at the time; or access to one) and she asked me what it was.  I told her and said for her to have a go at it.  Well, she did the most amusing thing and ever so gently pressed the buttons; as though not to hurt it.  I said that she had to bash the keys to make it type; but she gave me a shocked look and said that she'd break if she ever did that.  I showed her by giving some of the keys a good hit and typing out something and she cringed at the noise it made; saying it wasn't supposed to be that noisy.  I said that it was a typewriter; and they were a big thing when they first came out and were manual - just like the one she was looking at - until recently when we all began using computers.  
And this was at the beginning of this century.  It got me thinking of what kind of things our kids - and younger - have missed out on already that we grew up with.  I mean, this is a world of remote controls, iPods, MP3's, internet on mobile phones and iPads where everything is tiny and small; and yet children are not being taught anything about how the old world customs are still in use.  How it's polite to let a lady through a door first, once a man opens it for her.  How it's not right to swear in front your elders; no matter how old you are, it's just not right.  Kids today just have no respect for anything old or anyone; and it's getting worse.  
Antiques for the future aren't only objects, they are also customs that began to slip by us years ago.  I didn't realise they had begun to do so until I took a good look around and found that our world is beginning to fall apart all due to our customs and old-style items fading from our living rooms.  I watched 'The Block' last night and the two teams were given a living room with a Victorian fireplace.  Neither of them used the fireplace, instead blocking it up - or taking it out altogether - and they gave the living room a very futuristic, minimalistic feel which left me feeling cold.  Why not use the fireplace and leave out the television and install a bookcase instead... have a hearth with a large rug and make the room nice and cosy instead of bare and uninviting?  Wouldn't reading be more of a wonderful past-time than sitting in front of a box each night squinting at a screen?  Or better still, make the television room a different room altogether?  A place with a fireplace is meant for books, or a musical instrument... not a television.
Maybe it's me who's getting to sound like an antique... sounding like I'm going to fade off into the woodwork of the past and be forgotten; all because I like to read real books and not books off computer screens.  I love to play vinyls and not boom boxes with little iPods attached to them.  I love to play an upright, 88 key, Australian made, Paling & Co piano and not an electric piano that you have to plug into a wall socket.  I hope I'm not alone in this.  Until my next post, stay safe, keep warm and remember, I'm always here.

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