It was a hot and humid
night in November, 2014, later to be cooled at midnight by dew and some cool
wind blowing through my window which rendered my hot-wind blowing standing fan useless.
I was awoken at 1: am by cobra (my dog) with loud barks. I spied through my
half closed louvers to ensure everything was alright. It was then that I
realized the whole neighbourhood was in stack darkness. I yelled in my head, “ECG
(Electricity Company of Ghana, the company that supplies electricity to
everyone in my country) has done it again”!. Jeez we have only had 6 hrs of
uninterrupted power supply for the past 24 hrs, 3 hrs of which was midnight
when we have no ‘use’ for electricity so why the hell would E.C.G. do this to
us, I asked. A lot of you, except in emergency situations, may not be familiar
with electricity rationing but this is a common phenomenon in my country. This
is a continent with abundant sunshine and wind yet no one sees the need to
invest in solar, wind or any other alternative energy.
The night before, I had
gone to bed with great eagerness and anticipation of the next day because of a job
interview I had. I had been advised then to press a shirt or two for E.C.G.
can’t be trusted. Yet I was adamant that, once we have not had electricity all
day, there was no way E.C.G. was going to turn us off again. After all, the
entire schedule was 36 hrs of power, 12hrs of none but alas I was proven wrong.
I resigned myself to fate; the fact that I would have to wear crumpled shirt and
trousers to the interview. I had failed in advance or so I thought. Or wait a
minute, there was another option. I could arrange my clothes in a straightened
position under my mattress and sleep on it, like we did in high school, on days
we failed to iron our uniforms though we knew we wouldn’t have electricity the
next day.
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| My antique box iron |
Then it hit me like a
thunder. The old box, yes the old antique box iron must be somewhere!!
I need to find it and bring it back to life. It could be my best savior in this
time of turmoil. Into the store room I run, scurrying through everything in my
way and there it was; the good old antique!! I picked it up with care.
It looked rusty, dusty old and rickety. It doesn’t matter, I will clean, polish
and tighten the screws. Then I will whip up some fire with charcoal. My
imagination was running wild with pictures of heat and sweat all over my body
but it was worth it for in the end, it was problem solved!! That was how my day
was saved by antiquity where modern technology, coupled with human
indiscretion, failed me. I love technology and I am probably the biggest fan of
it yet somehow on occasions like these, I sometimes tend to shudder what would
happen if technology breaks down. .
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| These are but a few of my antique stuff |
As a hobby, I keep some
antique at home but also for a ‘paranoiac’ reason in case technology fails and
I need to go back to the ‘cave age’. So for example, I still have my old cassette
player and LP turn table player just in case any of the new technologies for music playing
fails. I still keep my hard copy CDs just in case my external hard drive
crushes and oh, that includes the old video cassette player. I still have my
old camera with some film in case my digital camera fails one day. I even still
maintain my knowledge of how to light fire with two stones if I can’t find the
lighter. I have my cutlass to clear the compound of weeds if the mower fails.
Technology is moving very fast. It is said that the technology you have today
would have changed by tomorrow and so would be obsolete. As I sit and ponder
what a day I have had, I keep wondering what will happen one day if all these
technologies fail us? Every time I am tempted to send these ‘antiques’
to the junk yard, I am reminded of this question. If for nothing at all I just
love keeping me some antiquities as souvenirs at least and who knows when they
may come in handy. Do you keep, collect or deal in antiques? Have any of
them saved your day in recent times? I would be glad to hear you share your
story.
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