Remembering Making Stuff
The fun in making stuff, now, think back to a childhood before digital technology and when film could be stored upon something as thin as a sheet of paper…remember what I’m on about? I do, I remember it well, and the reason I remember it is because I arrived at the bus stop slightly earlier than usual this morning. There were two business men there, and instead of conversing about shares and who was more attractive in Ally Mcbeal, they were discussing being children. Meccano, Lego and building air-fix models. Oh, the sheer joy of hearing this…
Me, I hadn’t constructed anything for years. A shelf and wardrobe or two, but nothing that didn’t come from IKEA. Suddenly I, Mr Business, was transported back to those frustrating yet fun times of battling to make a model plane. Painting it, slaving over it, working on it well past my bed-time and my parents telling me off.
Of course, that making-things part of me never did go away. I now take the same kind of pride and practice in making money and making charts (mainly to do with payroll software related stuff) to demonstrate things to my colleagues and clients. And I am sure that I wouldn’t be as good at what I do now if I hadn’t had all that frustration back then. It’s certainly a concern that nowadays children don’t have the opportunity so readily in front of them to make simple things like model aircraft and basic building shapes.
But then again, what goes around comes around, so who knows? Maybe in a few years that will make a comeback. It couldn’t come sooner, I say.
