CONVENIENCE VERSUS THE GOOD OLD DAYS
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 23, 2018 – While shopping for groceries the other day, I observed what other people were buying. Many of the carts had frozen dinners, pizzas, cake and pancake mixes, sodas, shop bought bakery items and so on. It struck me that we have become very reliant on convenience in so many aspects of modern life. Of course, women go out to work much more than they did 40 or 50 years ago, and not many want to come home to have to cook for the family on top of a long commute and an eight-hour working day.
The first time I encountered Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines was when I crossed the Atlantic and arrived in The Bahamas in 1982. Having two very small children at the time I decided to give them a try. I was hugely disappointed. To begin with, the amount of ingredients that needed to be added only really cut one step out of the cake baking process. But it was the end result that was the biggest let down. The texture was not the same as a made from scratch cake, and worst of all, the taste was so artificial. The can of frosting was sickly sweet as well.
I read the list of ingredients and method on a box of pancake mix. It required adding one egg, vegetable oil, and a cup of water to the mix. The basic difference is that to make pancakes from scratch all you have to do is measure a cup and a half of flour, three and a half teaspoons of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, and then add the egg and a cup and a quarter of milk. It takes the same amount of time, the total ingredients are cheaper, and they don’t have all the chemical additives that are needed to extend the shelf life of the packet mix. So overall, the scratch recipe is healthier too.
I made up my mind years ago to cut out all those convenience foods, and so for quite some time I have baked cakes and bread from scratch. We don’t consume store bought bread or baked goods at all. My “convenience” meals consist of fresh ingredients cooked in sufficient quantities to last for two or three meals, so that I don’t have to cook every day. Less salt, no unpronounceable chemical flavourings or preservatives, just good wholesome food like my grandmother used to cook!
As we sat watching television, a commercial came on depicting a young man in his home surrounded by electronic devices. Everything in his home has been turned into a convenience device. He asks each of the devices to perform a variety of tasks – like make ice, play music, turn on the lights, order take out and so on. We have become that society of the future that we used to talk about only a couple of decades ago as being a thing of the distant future. We hardly need to step outside our homes any more, everything can be done by the tap of a finger on a screen. We can order just about anything from our laptops, tablets or phones without getting up off the sofa. Brick and mortar stores are gradually closing down, unable to generate the foot traffic needed to support their businesses, and mega distribution centres are opening up in strategic cities in order to be able to ship the goods we order online to us in 48 hours or less!
Autonomous cars are now being tested, and pretty soon we won’t even need to drive. Well, I don’t drive anyway, but that is by choice. Washington, D.C., has a very efficient public transportation system and I really love the ease of getting about by subway. It means I have to walk more, but that is preferable to having to pay very high parking fees and driving round and round the block trying to find a place to park. There really isn’t a need to own a car in the city.
Of course, there are some modern conveniences even I wouldn’t want to live without. I am really glad I don’t have to go down to a river and beat my clothes on a rock to wash them, and, although it took a bit of persuading to get me to use one, having a dishwasher does have advantages! So does a food processor – I hate crying over chopping onions. I would give anything not to have to chop an onion! I went through a phase of making my own clothes years ago, and an electric sewing machine certainly was a boon, but now the ease of shopping online or discount stores like TJMaxx has pretty much made the need for a sewing machine obsolete. There is a certain satisfaction in making things yourself, however – a great sense of achievement that you cannot have when you purchase something ready made.
I often wonder how people would manage if all of a sudden all the technology of the last 50 years were to cease functioning. We might be healthier, walk more, eat less junk food, spend more quality time with each other, instead of glued to a screen with headphones on, shutting out the world and people around us. We might talk to each other more, play checkers or monopoly instead of Minecraft, go out to the movies more instead of watching Netflix curled up on the sofa.
A couple of days ago I left home without my glasses. I had taken them off to apply sunscreen to my face, and my mind was busy making a list of the things I needed to do and planning my route downtown. I left the glasses on the dresser. I actually was so deep in thought that I walked almost two blocks before I realized that the world around me was somewhat blurrier than usual. At that point I decided not to back for them, although I could not read the screen on my phone at all, and my vision is blurry for both reading and distance. I could see, just not clearly. Speech to text allowed me to send a message to my husband letting him know it would be pointless trying to text me if he needed to get in touch! As I walked the six blocks to downtown, I noticed that at least half the people I encountered had ear buds in their ears, most of them talking animatedly – I have always thought it funny as they look like they are talking to themselves – or had their heads down, busily texting.
When I caught the subway train home after my shopping expedition I was one of the few who did not have a phone in their hand, playing games or scrolling through social media. If I had not forgotten my glasses you can be very sure I would have been playing spider solitaire to pass the very few minutes that it would take for my train to transport me five stations from Metro Centre to Waterfront. I was annoyed with myself for forgetting the glasses, but perhaps more so because I was itching to play that addictive game! We now live in an age where it seems that most of us just have to occupy every minute of the day with those compulsive little devices. Everyone seems to be locked away in their little digital space.
The modern conveniences have changed what we perceive as the quality of life. Now I understand what my parents and grandparents meant when they talked about the “good old days” – the days when people communicated more in person, rather than through a six inch screen or in 280 characters.
