Saturday 8 November 2008

Sunday Scribblings, Change.

G'Day,
This week has seen the U.S. elections taking place and being finalized. Pretty historic happenings in our world which is dominated in one way or another by that country. Whether it be by culture, finance, trade or its leadership in lots of other areas. Today I read the Sunday Scribblings prompt and thought no I won't go there because I reckoned that that is what is on most peoples minds at the moment. I will try to be different.
Change.
Changes I have seen in my life.
When I was very small I remember that Mum did the shopping at the corner shop in the next street. We also had bakers, milkmen, and fruit and vege people selling from vans who came to our front door. We also grew a lot of our own vegetables, everyone did. It was the done thing, now it is more of a hobby than a necessity.
My life has been full of change of one sort or another. I guess that we could all say the same couldn't we.
What I was thinking about was in the amount of money we have to pay out in staple foodstuffs each week nowadays as compared to when I first started doing the family shopping.
When I was 11 years old we lived in Sydney and my Dad was away in Vietnam.We didn't have a lot of spare cash but we got by o.k. and usually managed a take away dinner most Friday nights of fish and chips or something similar. There wasn't a lot else to choose from in our price range in those days. Not like with the big food chain places that sell such garbage nowadays.
Anyway when I was 11 it was my job to do the weekly shopping for the family.My Mum was probably trying to get me to learn all those domestic goddess things that girls were supposed to learn in those days. I could already clean the house and cook a meal and make great sponge cakes. Where as my elder sister was the brainy, pretty,social one and not domestic like me. Mum would give me $5 and send me down to the shops at Bondi Road which was about 3 blocks away from our place . I used to go into the little vegetable shop on the corner and the Italian man there would help me get the fruit and veges I wanted. Then about a block and a half further down the road was a small cluttered supermarket where I would get the rest of the stuff I wanted. I always came away with bags full of stuff that I would have to drag back home with great difficulty.I would have the circulation in my hands cut off and no feeling left in them by the time I got back. I remember I always had enough money left to take home a packet of Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs which were our favorite treat at the time. They were a box of popcorn set in honey toffee and nuts. You can't buy them anymore. I usually had a few coins left over to take home also. There was a butcher on the corner of Belgrave and Murray streets which was just a few doors down from us and I used to go in there and buy whatever was cheap, usually chops, mince or sausages. I used to be so proud of my shopping job. Butcher shops were different then too, they had wooden benches and sawdust on the floor and butchers always seemed to have a certain personality type, they were loud and friendly and always had a joke with you.
Neighborhood shopping and corner shops have pretty well died out now because of easily accessible transport options and the competition from the big supermarket chains pricing them out of business.
When I was first married my household food budget was $30 a week. I used to get my shopping at Woolworth's, there was only one woolies in Wagga at the time. It was in the main street, Baylis street, in almost the same place it is now, except now it is inside a shopping mall, in those days it stood alone. You could go in there and get everything you wanted in the one shop, without having to go back and forwards to three different places. I was just short of my 21st birthday when I got married and I remember being disgusted at the price of grocery items and what they cost for a week to feed just two people, $30 a week, amazing.
Just a few years later we had two little boys to feed and we lived in a tiny town called Urana, about an hour and a half drive west south west of Wagga. There was a small supermarket run by a not very nice man who charged inflated prices for not very fresh goods because he could, he was the only shop in town, so the most I ever bought there was bread and milk. I came in to Wagga once a fortnight on pay week to do the shopping and visit my parents for the weekend. I think my fortnightly budget was $120. I could fill up the car boot for that. I still went to woolies but I also got things from a local couple ( the Knights) who would drive around Urana each Thursday with their old Holden station wagon loaded up and sell fresh fruit and veges, mostly grown in their own back yard. They were lovely people who became good friends and Marge became one of my children's adopted Nana's.
When we moved to Junee the town was reasonably well serviced but we still shopped mainly in Wagga for foodstuffs as there was a greater choice. I think my budget went up to $200 a fortnight. All of the shopping was done at the supermarket.
The prices kept going up......and up. I reckon now that we are here in Canberra the amount that we spend fortnightly is probably closer to four or five hundred dollars. Most of the shopping is still done in supermarkets but I think that nowadays there is a trend heading back to a few years ago where we enjoyed buying our food from the grower and smaller market vendors than from a large impersonal chain store type supermarket.
I have never done a break up of what I spend, but I guess that an extra amount could be added from buying lunches out and bottles of drink between jobs, at the Campbell shops. My mother who lives with us helps out with paying for groceries but she does not pay rent.
Here in Canberra they have regular farmers and different goumet food markets that are fun to visit and have a great atmosphere in comparison to supermarket shopping. I love the Kingston bus depot markets where they have all sorts of interesting foods. Organic fruits and veges, cheeses, condiments, local produce and wines, deli things, breads to name a few. My favorite thing there is the Turkish and Jordanian sweets, I love their home made baklava. You can go along and taste all the different things which is fun, except when I go there I always spend extra. Four decades ago there would have been very little of those gourmet types of foods available to us and, if they were available I guess we would have been unwilling to try them.
So over a period of almost four decades I have gone from spending $5 a week to feed 3 people to $250 a week to feed 4 (or sometimes more) people. That of course does not take into account the change in the things I now choose to buy and the amount in comparison that I have to spend or the ages and tastes of the people I need to feed.Along with that clothing, furniture, housing, utilities, cars and petrol have gone up too, but so have wages.I wonder if anyone has ever done a comparison of wages and living costs for the same period of time.
When I was 17 I started work full time and was really proud and excited when my weekly earnings reached $100 for the first time. I thought I was great. Now I work part time, 20 hrs per week and my pay does not go far at all, even though it is a nice supplement and we need it.
When I started driving at 17, the price of petrol was 15 cents a litre. Now it is $1.24 per litre and not so long ago it was as high as $1.87 per litre. It is good to see that world oil prices have dropped but I reckon it will be only temporary.
Well I had better finish on that subject because otherwise this could become a very long rambling post.
Good night.
Love Linda.

20 comments:

anthonynorth said...

Some excellent reflections there. From my experience, living standards have actually gone down in recent times, despite what most governments say.
I remember in the 1970s a relatively low wage could fund a flat, a car, meals out and various other treats - beer, I mean.
Today these things are increasingly more difficult to afford on a low wage.

gautami tripathy said...

You won't beleive essential commodities like grocery has touched the sky here...

gautami tripathy said...

And come read my post..

Champions of writing and bonding

anno said...

Sometimes our grocery bills make me gasp... I remember living on $15/week. Lots of rice and beans, and no car to drive for shopping, but I suspect I was healthier for both the cheap food and constant walking.

paisley said...

time travel at its finest... i spending $25 a week for groceries,, many moons agio when i was first married... now as a single woman,, i spend $40 every dang time i go in the store it seems!!! and i never do a full weeks shopping all at once anymore...

Unknown said...

TWELVE STEPS AWAY FROM CHRIST
Mr. Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and creator of the twelve-step program. Mr. Wilson was heavily influenced by demons.

Chapter sixteen (p. 275f) of 'Pass It On' The Story of Bill Wilson and how the A.A. message reached the world records Mr. Wilson's use of the ouija board, participation in séances, psychic events, "spook sessions", table levitation, and how he would receive "messages" from "discarnate" spirits.

Bill Wilson was clearly in contact with demons, and this is the man who created the deceptive twelve-step program.

Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him. (Step #11. Emphasis added.) The last part of this statement ("as we understood Him") is enough to damn your soul! God says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5).

This is the exact opposite of "God as we understood Him." All men, according to Romans 1:18-32, are condemned before God, because they rely upon their own understanding (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:18, "having their understanding darkened"), and they create (in their own darkened minds) a god of their own making (Romans 1:23).


To encourage people to turn their "lives over to the care of God as we understood Him", is to encourage people to "turn their lives over to a god of their own making" (i.e. according to their own understanding).

This promotes nothing more than spiritual death (Revelation 22:15). In addition, these twelve steps are a deceitful attack against the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. they are against Christ, anti-Christ, 2 John 7; Colossians 2:8-10).

The twelve steps are (as Mr. Wilson used them) given as an answer (a way) in which one can overcome sin (with Mr. Wilson's case, the sin of drunkenness).

Jesus Christ is the ONLY answer for sin. He is the only way (John 14:6). There is only ONE "step", and that is faith in the Saviour (Ephesians 2:8/Matthew1:21/John 8:36/Romans10: 13!

The above exemplifies the "twelve steps" are what are used to "become free from addictive, compulsive" behaviour (i.e. sin). In other words, the twelve steps are the saviour!

No doubt it is deceptive, because "Biblical principles" are interwoven throughout; but if they weren't, few (if any) would be deceived. One good question to ask would be, "Where does Scripture talk about any 'twelve steps'"? The answer? Nowhere!

These twelve steps come from Satan (via Bill Wilson), who is the master deceiver (Revelation 12:9). Remember, SATAN. used Scripture to tempt Christ (Matthew 4:6), and Balaam spoke much truth (Numbers 23-24); but he was a false prophet (2 Peter 2:15-16/Numbers 22).

In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus warned, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Jesus likewise warned in Luke 13:24, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.


Peace Be With You
Michael Patrick

Unknown said...

AA denies CHRIST & the STEPPERS who claim to be CHRISTIAN are participating in it.

AA TOO IS PARTICIPATING IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE ANTI-CHRIST.

SHADOW, (1 Door Away From Heaven part II) is participating in THE DOCTRINE OF THE ANTI-CHRIST.

Martha said...

Very interesting post. I, too, remember what we called hucksters who came around in trucks and even a few horse-drawn wagons when I was a child. I also remember the iceman and the chips of ice he would let the neighborhood children have from the back of his truck. Change has certainly happened in our lifetimes.

Sorrow said...

I suppose that the beauty of all of it is the constant change. guess we would be bored with out it.
Thanks for sharing some interesting Reflections..

Mountain Mama said...

Your post has brought back some wonderful memories.
We had a bakery a few blocks from our house and the meat market was about five blocks away. The little corner store where we usually went was also just two blocks away. She didn't have fresh produce or meats, just milk and canned stuff mostly and a wonderful bumball machine that took a penny. Gosh I loved that thing.
Mom used to give us twenty five cents to go to the bakery for loaf of bread. One day we came back for more money. The price had gone up. Grandma said,
"you mark my word, one day a loaf of bread will cost a whole dollar. As we know, that day came and went. I stopped buying store-bought bread because of the chemicals used. I use my bread machine instead and my bread is much healthier.
I do wish we could go back and enjoy the simpler life. Oh....those were the days!

linda may said...

Re Michael Patrick;
I do not go in for religious extremism.
If I want to be preached to I know where to go for that and I do not want it on my computer. Your style of religion give Christianity a bad name.
Those are your views not mine, if I choose to be preached to I know where to go for that and I do not want it in my own home through my computer. Thank You.
Otherwise you are welcome to share my blog.

Unknown said...

linda may said...
Re Michael Patrick;
I do not go in for religious extremism.
If I want to be preached to I know where to go for that and I do not want it on my computer. Your style of religion give Christianity a bad name.


Dear Linda,
I felt some pain reading your DIATRIBE - I imagine you were RAGING over your fear, pain & shame?

Did your father "preach" to you?

totomai said...

life experiences are great teachers to us. sometimes we do complain, but as they always say, we cant do nothing about what had happened before.

thanks for sharing your story

Stan Ski said...

Yeah, times change, and we all remember 'the good old days' - but when it comes full circle, we realise that perhaps it wasn't so good after all.

Martha said...

Linda, you can always change your settings so comments have to be approved. It is a shame to have to do that to prevent someone from taking over your comments that way but we all know the views expressed in the comments section are not necessarily the views of the blog owner.

Lilibeth said...

I, like you, remember when my husband and I bought groceries for thirty dollars a week. We also spent two years at an orphanage in Mexico, and fed 45 (more or less) children on one hundred and fifty a week. Of course that also had to pay for medicine and diesel for the electric plant-(which only ran a couple of hours a day--when it ran) Today, I don't know what their budget is.

As far as salaries go, mine has stayed close to the same for years, but that's because I teach in a private school. If I went to a public school my salary would double...but so would my blood pressure and it's too high already.

Thanks for a well-written post. I love to read about life in other times and places and you've given both.

Lilibeth said...

You might want to try using a filter to stop people who spam...delete their comments. I'm sorry people do that.

Robin said...

I still shop in a number of neighborhood shops :). I do have a full-size supermarket just down the road, several in fact, but for many things the small stores are still better, and there is something to be said for shopping where they know your name, where they will hold that item you desperately need for you, where they'll let you come by and pay later when you've forgotten your wallet (who me?).

Unknown said...

Martha said...
Linda, you can always change your settings so comments have to be approved. It is a shame to have to do that to prevent someone from taking over your comments..

My Dear Martha,
I LOVE JESUS SO MUCH

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE ANY CAUSE OR REASON TO BE ASHAMED TO LOVE JESUS.


Is not the time coming, and the day hastening, when covetous men shall be ashamed of loving the world, and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their pleasures, and ambitious men ashamed of loving their honours?

For is it not a horrid shame, that a rational creature should be such a sot as to love sin which is most loathsome, and not to love Jesus who is most lovely? To love deformity, and not beauty?

Oh shame, shame! It is a shame that sin should have such esteem, and Jesus such great contempt put upon him. But shame shall before long confound these now shameless wretches, when they shall cry out, "We are ashamed that we loved profits, and not Jesus- houses, lands, lusts, and not Jesus.

This is the confusion of our faces, and shame covers us-- that we should be so foolish, and so blind, that we had not sense, nor reason, to distinguish between sin, which is the greatest and most odious evil, and Jesus who is the greatest and most lovely good." But the time will never come, the day will never be, that a gracious soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ.

Linda Jacobs said...

Very interesting! I love all the Australian words and names!