At the time of my birth and early childhood in the late 1980’s, there was no technological gadget or equipment anywhere to do anything for us in my family. Everything was done manually. I recall the only technological device was a monochrome television with a tune dial. You had to tune the dial to get a clearer signal before you can enjoy the television program.
Later on DVD players and colour television became a thing and my dad bought them. Those were the only technological devices I recall seeing around my home as a child.
I watched my mum take care of the home from scratch. What do I mean? Just chill, I'll tell you all about it.
As a homemaker, it was essential to prepare your husband's food by yourself and that was exactly what my mum did. She would trek to the market which was quite some distance, get back home, enter the kitchen to start preparing the family's meal.
There were certain food ingredients that required pounding and grinding them before they could be used. My mum would make use of a mortar and pestle to pound her ingredients before she could begin cooking and trust me that was time consuming. We made do, because there was no blender available.
To get a fresh fruit juice to drink, I would have to manually squeeze the fruit on a manual fruit juicer which was a load of stress at that time.
After blending and time to cook, my mum would bring out her charcoal stove, arrange the charcoal, light it up and wait for the charcoal to fully burn before she could start any cooking whatsoever.
Talk about doing the laundry, we had no washing machine, so all dirty clothes were hand washed irrespective of their texture and quality and they had to be washed on certain specific days which was usually the weekend. You can imagine the mountain of clothes that a single person would wash.
After washing the clothes, it would be time for ironing and guess what we used in ironing? It was a coal iron. I was tasked with seeking out very hot coals which would be placed inside the coal iron before it could be used.
Then there were other chores like mopping the floors but with no mop stick available, we used rags to clean the floors instead. What about food preservation? That was another hectic task in itself. As we did not have a refrigerator, most foods were preserved by either smoking, sun drying or boiling consistently. I disliked smoking fish to preserve it because the smoke from the firewood hurts my eyes but who was I to complain. Weade do with what we had.
When modern technological devices became rampant and more people became aware of them and their usage, things started to take new and better turns for us.
My dad got an electric blender which saved us time in the kitchen as what we would have used an hour plus to blend with a mortar and pestle, the electric blender would blend it within minutes.
From there, gas and kerosene stoves were bought and we said bye bye to charcoal. Mop sticks were also brought into the picture and all was going right.
The only technological device my dad did not get was a washing machine. I don't know why he didn't get one but he always patronized laundromats for his washing. Only a few clothes were washed at home and that was a huge relief.
In place of. A coal iron, an electric pressing iron was brought and that ended my charcoal run.
Currently, there are many technological marvels available to us. Three years ago, I went to a trade Fair and saw a food processor and a food pounder on display. That device could cook and pound the food with just one click on its switch. Many Nigerians love pounded yam and so that was a great technological device for the kitchen.
There are now juice makers, vegetable processors and many things you can think of. They are just a delight to behold and to possess at home.
These technological devices are a joy as they have made chores very easy to accomplish. Personally, these appliances, gadgets and equipment have made my life to have balance in some way. I can boldly abandon some chore because I know that within minutes that mountainous chore or task would be leveled down completely.
I have never and might never regret using technological devices.
Thank you all for reading. This is my response to the #thoughtfulthursday prompt #37.
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