Sarah Singh

Close your eyes. Take a moment to transport yourself back forty years. In this make-belief land, computers, cell phones, TVs and other technological gizmos are scarce. Could you live in this place? What would you even do with yourself? Although it seems crazy now to imagine a world without these commonplace items, this was reality for a lot of people.

In today’s modern world, many of us seem to lose perspective of the way things used to be and how to interact with others without gluing our faces to a screen. In some ways, perhaps we could all use a jolt to help us realign our priorities.

Enter Janet B., a fourth generation New Westminster resident. Janet, born and raised in New Westminster, grew up in the same Victorian house as her ancestors. Imagine, being able to recognize the mark on your bedroom wall from stories told about your great-grandmother or grandfather, to be surrounded by your own history, how incredible! Moreover, the house itself served as a sort of vantage point from which the family could watch the changes unfolding in the city around it. From the advent of refrigerators to the boom in automobile sales, Janet’s family saw it all. Given such rich history and personal family connection, it’s not surprising that Janet never felt a desire to leave the city. For Janet B., New Westminster is home.

That being said, Janet is not afraid to travel! She’s extremely enjoyed previous travels to England and Scotland as her ancestry lies there. Since her genealogy is actually mapped out, Janet was able to visit towns in which her ancestors had lived. She could walk down the same lanes they walked along, visit the buildings that were a part of their daily lives, and participate in some of the same cultural traditions.

Along her travels, Janet visited a town where one of her ancestors had been a hatter. This hatter’s son was in fact friends with Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Now, it is important to realize here that hatters in those days used a lot of mercury when felting the hats. As a result of this, many of them became deranged from mercury poisoning. From Alice in Wonderland, we all remember the infamous Mad Hatter. There is reason to believe that Janet’s ancestor was actually the muse for the Mad Hatter from the book! From her travels to her day-to-day life, history is definitely something that Janet takes pride in. She is able to look at the simple, seemingly mundane, things in life and find something interesting about them, a skill that not many people seem to be able to do. Even she has noticed how kids these days don?t seem to realize how different life was even twenty years ago and how much we take for granted now.

While growing up, Janet remembers having to actually go to the library to do research, needing to read things and copy them out. She was not being able to just ‘Google’ things from home or photocopy pages as we do now. She also took a typing class in ninth grade, something that would astound any ninth grader now. Of course, back then, computer programming was accomplished by punching holes into cards and feeding them through a machine. Now it’s all code and done on computers themselves. It is amazing how fast technology has boomed and it only leaves us guessing as to what will come in the future.

Aside from technology, culture has changed dramatically as well. Thirty years ago, there were a lot of taboo topics, many things that were just not talked about. Our modern-day reality TV shows did not exist, teenagers going out to smoke or drink was not discussed and our culture was not so openly sexualized. Janet thinks back to this time and is astonished by how much our society has changed over the years. Ideas that were once considered sinful to even think about are now willingly discussed on public networks. For example, swearing is common on TV now. Publicly saying any sort of swear word thirty years ago would only be met with disappointment. Janet also acknowledged how this increased publicity could be beneficial. In many areas it has raised awareness to a number of societal issues, such as violence and mistreatment. This is yet another example of how the times in which we live dictate the types of experiences we have.

Throughout her life Janet has accumulated a great deal of experiences, some of which left lasting memories and lessons learned. Janet knows how quickly life’s perspective can change, how one jolt can result in complete switch in priorities. She knows that life comes with its challenges and although there may be things we come to regret, there are many things to be thankful for as well. We meet so many different people and encounter so many different scenarios during our lifetime; it is amazing how these things come together to shape our lives and form who we are.

All in all, Janet’s advice to all of us is to live life with a clear conscience. If this means acting towards others as we would like others to act unto us then so be it. If we can all follow this sort of motto and be able to look back on life and say that we positively impacted people, not only will the world be a better place but we will also be able to say that we led a more successful life.

As for Janet herself? She hopes to soon be reunited with the British Isles. Perhaps on the next trip she will be able to return to Scotland and travel down to Wales via canal boat. It should be quite the adventure! Best of luck Janet!