My Storythe habit of growing up quickly.
After a few years of married life
in the newly minted suburb of
ours, baby accessories began to
appear – outgrown cots, rundown
baby walkers, def lated plastic baby
baths, broken-down prams and
strollers to be replaced a few years
later by damaged toys, unwanted
blackboards, and punctured balls
of all types. Then tricycles were
replaced with little training bikes,
which then became the bigger BMX
bikes or scooters or skateboards.
Eachdecadehasitsowniconicunwanted throwaways, too.
The 1970s produced old record
turntables, bar stools and wine
racks, home hairdryers, truckloads
of encyclopaedias and macrame. In
the 1980s there were plastic shoes,
Rubik’s cubes, phones with dials,
portable stereos and leopard print...
everything. Leopard print phones?
What were we thinking?
I can remember throwing away
the cassette tapes of all my favourite
groups and singers in the late
1990s, with the firm intention of
buyingthemallagainasCDs,and
thenlaterasiTunesorperhaps
Spotify.Beforee-wastecollections
camealong,it wasfascinating
toseecomputers,TVsandother
PHOTO: GET T Y IMAGES technologybecomemorecompact,
Kerry Podlogar is a retired teacher living
with her family in the northern suburbs of
Sydney. She likes reading, working for
charity and is happily awaiting the birth
of her first grandchild.13