"THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGEIN' "

AMAZON'S KINDLE E-READER and APPLE'S I PHONE

A recent visit to our original hometown Sydney, to celebrate my dear wife's 70th Birthday, gave rise to this post.


We had the privilege of staying in my Brother-in-Law's Unit overlooking Centennial Park and of enjoying his very generous hospitality over a number of days. He is not daunted by technology ( I am, late in life, trying to hone my powers of understatement).
As a consequence we had the chance to check out and use the latest "stuff". He is an Apple Afficionado so the I Phone was there - but he has demonstrated its wonders on previous occasions. He also has the I Pad ( a gift from a class of grateful students!) and the Amazon 3G Kindle.As it happens, I have had some previous introduction to E Readers at Maz and Nathan's place at Christmas , when Nathan's Mum showed us her Sony Reader. Now I had an opportunity to try I Pad and Kindle at my leisure. The I Pad shines for its design, capacities and functionality - it is remarkably intuitive to use . But, the fact that it is also very pricey ( as is the I Phone) means that for me it is beyond even hope - so away with Apple dreams. But the Kindle , at $189 , is well within planning possibility.It is a remarkable unit-well-designed, handy in size, huge in capacity(thousands of books), search capability and note taking capability plus a memory for which page you have reached in each book. With downloads quite cheap and a huge range of new and classic titles available - many at token prices, it is an ideal tool , especially for research. It will be invaluable when I am researching FOUNDATION and doing webposts on the Blogs. I have made a start by downloading Kindle for PC on my trusty Notebook - so I can begin building my E Library here - it can then be easily and freely transferred to up to 5 devices including the Kindle proper or a suitable phone (hmmmmm........ Rob's "Wildfire" ? .....No, she wouldn't let me near it!!) In time, I can build up a solid  Religious and History Classics Library at very little cost and have it at hand when I am preparing posts. Fabulous for travel reading and research if I ever get the chance again - surely the weekly "investment Certificates" will ultimately come good!


Just as I Pods and their imitators have destroyed the CD industry and Music Shops are collapsing into memory -  incredible as it might seem -  that institution of the last four centuries at least, the Bookshop, let alone the books they sell, seems to be becoming an "endangered species"( Ugh! I hate that phrase and all the phoney "last remaining whatevers" that usually attend it). I know, I know, like me, many will say : "Nothing will replace the feel of a book" or "no-one wants to curl up with an E Reader"etc. Don't bet on it ! Remember that these changes are being driven by the responses of a generation or three far more adept than people of my own vintage and already making their weight felt in the collapse of newspaper readership. Hang on tight - we are on a very bumpy ride on runaway technology. The best we can do, is to make use of it for our own purposes and pray that neither we nor ours, or our interests get in its way! It does not take prisoners!


Anyway, my interest has really been Kindled !!

*1943 - 1945 GOING TO THE "PICTURES"(Later "The Movies" - NEVER "The Cinema")

The ARCADIA "Picture Show" at Lidcombe N.S.W.

The nearest "Picture Show"to our home in Berala was the Arcadia Theatre in Lidcombe - a slow thirty, or brisk twenty minutes walk away. There was a regular bus service stopping at the corner of our street, running between Lidcombe and Regents Park. The trains of course went from Berala(on the Main Southern Line) just one stop to Lidcombe - but we did not use them for going to "the pictures". After the show, the bus waited across the way outside the paper shop ( newsagent) next to the Post Office and always left packed full.

Mum and Dad always dressed up to go to "the pictures"and, since it would be past my bedtime, I was in my pyjamas and dressing gown - quite snug in the winter! At Interval after the Newsreel , a cartoon or two, and either a documentary (Lowell Thomas'Travelogues were regulars ( "And so we say FAREWELL to......") or a C Grade movie , Dad(sometimes with me ) would go out to one of the three "Milk Bars"one on either side of the "Picture Show"  and another across the road - his favourite "The Black Cat". We would have a milk shake and /or an ice cream and take something nice back to Mum in the "Picture Show" . The Milk Bars were very heavily crush-packed at interval, and were no place for a lady!.On odd occasions my older brother Pat would accompany us. He was thirteen years older than me, and not much interested in this little kid. The age difference was so great that I looked up to him at all, though I know I would have welcomed some greater recognition from him. 

The show always commenced with the National Anthem( this was of course War time but I believe it had always been so.) That was of course, "God Save the King"( George VI - Father of the present Queen) the film backing it presented the rolling sea - everyone knew that Britannia ruled the waves - or as some wag later said, waived the rules- then the Naval Ensign was superimposed on the waves and the King's profile brought the whole to a resounding conclusion. EVERYONE stood! I felt proud and justified -we were going to beat those baddies!

We usually sat in the left hand front section toward the back ( come to think of it we still do that to-day).The  second rear section sloped gently back to the entrance doors from the Foyer. Years later when I went to "the pictures"on Saturday Afternoons with my mate Brien Dryden ( who lived opposite us) we usually sat in this area on the right hand side facing the screen.Some kids took advantage of the slope to release an occasional bounty of "JAFFAS"(Chocolate Balls coated with lurid Orange coloured glaze) toward the occupants on the flat area below. Most of the films we saw when the War was on were what we would now so loftily and superiorly call wartime propaganda. Of course our blokes, or the Poms or even the yanks had a tough time , but they ALWAYS came out on top of those nasty Nazies and evil little guys from up North. What else were you going to show people at risk of invasion? The rush to the EXIT was bad enough to catch the Bus - Heaven knows what it might become if people were shown how real the threat was!

My memories of those evenings at "the pictures"with my dear Mum and Dad are all fond, safe and happy - the simple joy of the childhood of those days.

It was in this same "Picture Show"that young , diminutive and beautiful Elsie Georgina Beckmann had met smart, good-looking John (Jack) Joseph Dixon , and had been attracted to him because he had, as she said later, "kind eyes".

AN INTRODUCTION

There are already four Blogs which are my responsibility -  Edward Beckmann - concerns the life and times of my maternal Grandfather, Conrad Beckmann - concerns the life, times and works of his father, Carl Dopmeyer - concerns the life , times and works of my Great Great Grandfather,Conrad's Father-in-Law; the fourth is VEXILLA REGIS which concerns everything to do with the Catholic Church and I regard it as a religious work dedicated to the glory of God Who established and preserves His Church.

Recently, I had brought to my attention an 81 page account of his life written by my Grandfather Edward Beckmann. The circumstances of its preservation through the 49 years since Grandad's death at 84 yrs are unusual - more of that later. But it tended to concentrate my mind very readily on the possibility of doing something similar concerning my own life and times and thinking, so that my descendants in their old age might also have an inkling of how things were way back "now", and of why this or that happened.

BUT NOUGHT is the result of that idea.My intention is to identify posts about events in my life by a date, usually a year - major events by a specific date.  Other general commentary will be separately identified. It all sounds very logical, but reality does seem to break in on our plans and intentions from time to time - we shall see.