As a 50s baby, I've seen advancements in just about every aspect of life and living.
My grandparents and my parents survived the Great Depression which strangely ended during the Second World War. Many did not survive or recover from it.
Some people rose above those adversities and did amazingly well for themselves.
Light Bulb Moments
Most homes had electricity during the 1920s and with it came many new inventions. There must have been many a light-bulb moment in homes across the globe. I can just imagine the excitement of flicking a switch instead of sitting by candlelight or oil lamps, which were a fire hazard as well!
Stoves - Wood, Coal, Electric and Gas
I remember visiting my Ouma and Oupa and how we enjoyed sitting in their kitchen in winter with the old wood-burning stove warming us up after the long drive there.
Coffee
Coffee-making was quite a ritual and still is for some of us.
My Oupa would stir the coffee beans in an old cast iron pot till it was roasted to perfection, grind it by hand in the coffee grinder, and then brew it on the stove in an old coffee percolator. The aroma coming from those beans roasting and the coffee brewing was divine.
Instant coffee surprisingly has been around since the late 18th century but is more widely used today. Nothing beats the real thing though, so I'd rather opt for a cup of tea or just water if the real thing is not on offer! I have yet to find instant coffee that tastes good!
Coffee machines is big business and they're getting more and more sophisticated, some big coffee stations and compact coffee machines do the job almost equally well.
Those 'must-have' Kitchen Appliances
Kitchen appliances have evolved from those old pressure cookers that sometimes 'exploded,' with their contents 'baptizing' the entire kitchen from top to bottom.
Nowadays some appliances do just about any job in the kitchen. Some people end up buying every new appliance that comes on the market, many which become white elephants.
Energy Crisis
All these appliances become useless without electricity, something that's a huge problem here in my home country with planned outages called load-shedding messing up our plans!
It still amazes me how silent the house becomes during load-shedding with no appliances running.
It feels like my world comes to a standstill without electricity.
Imagine if this were to happen worldwide!
Wind turbines and solar panels are something that was not seen when I was just a little girl, all we saw were the enormous concrete power stations that emit pollutants.
What do I miss the most during power outages?
I was caught off-guard yesterday when there was a large power outage in our area.
My Cell Phone
I will be brutally honest; my cellphone has become my lifeline; bad, I know! It needed charging, as did the power bank, and I had to resist checking my phone every time it beeped or else it would die on me! No watching YouTube videos, or listening to music either, as we are never given time-frames during power failures.
It would have been no problem in the days of the good old telephone, and I would have been absolutely satisfied with reading my book.
WiFi is sorted
My WiFi at least has an inverter, but no good if my phone hasn't been charged!
The stove?
If it's close to mealtimes, I would simply resort to ordering a takeaway meal, but if I'm halfway through cooking, it would be a big irritation. I haven't invested in a gas stove yet, would love to have an old wood-burning stove like my Oupa; they're still around, but it's impossible in my small kitchen!
Size does and doesn't count!
The Television
Televisions started its life as a bulky electronic device with a small screen, and it was an amazing invention! They became bigger and bigger to the point where one almost feels like you're in a cinema!
Mini PC
The best invention that still amazes me is my mini-PC, which looks more like a cube, measuring 8,5cm square x 4cm high.
My desk is not that big, and my old computer took up quite a bit of space with my large screen filling half the desk.
I'm very impressed with this little baby's performance! The only downside is that it also needs electricity to power up, unlike a laptop that will at least keep going for a couple of hours without electricity.
The Cell Phone
Funny how cell phones started off as large bricks with aerials, then became smaller flip-phones, and then slimmer but slightly bigger again.
My friend 
The Humane.AI Pin has no screen and only interact via voice commands, whereas the Rabbit-R1 has a small touch-screen but also operates via voice commands, mind-blowing for me.
I love clutching my phone after all, so cannot see myself evolving to any of these, but who knows?
When you become a little more silvery on top, it's not so easy to adapt, but a couple of years down the line, we wonder how we managed without all these new gadgets
I cannot imagine the shock, and wonder if our great-grandparents could step into the present, it would be a whole strange new world for them!
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