I remember when my late father hit what I call “life’s brick wall”. Dad was a very intelligent man with a deeply embedded work ethic and sense of responsibility. Just after my tenth birthday, Mom died, and Dad single-handedly raised my older sister and me, and, being adamant that education was essential both for one’s inner self and for societal success, he ensured we completed post-secondary education. Dad was well-read, thoughtful, and steadfast. He was, and remains, representative of the standard to which I strive.
In his working lifetime, he had dealt with a variety of new technologies, but the pace and extent of electronic intrusion into the life of the average citizen increased exponentially by the time he was about 85 years old. He had been doing quite well living on his own and in the same house he had occupied for over 35 years. ATMs were just making their appearance, and while he had established an uneasy peace with them (think of China and Taiwan), he was able to continue conducting his financial affairs with human bank employees. By all measures, he continued to be a spry and engaged octogenarian with whom one could carry on thoughtful conversations on a wide variety of topics, though it was best not to engage in one of those conversations if one were poorly prepared on the topic (think of your worst experience in front of the Court of Appeal).
Consequently, I was somewhat taken aback when I watched him confront, and none too gracefully, concede defeat to a VCR. Now, many of you may have had little, or no, experience with VCRs. Suffice it to say they were the bulky and rudimentary forerunner to the DVD player. A VCR’s most advanced features were “fast forward” and “reverse”. However, to make the VCR operational, one had to ensure that the television to which it was connected was on a predesignated channel, and the controls for the VCR were separate from the television.
My sister and I thought we were quite clever when we bought a new VCR for Dad for his birthday. We thought it would let him watch the movies he chose, and to do so on his timing. To cut to the chase, he never did warm to the VCR, and never did “embrace” the technology. At his stage of life, he was not prepared to expend the effort to tackle one more advance in electronics. The VCR was in pristine, though dusty, condition when he died several years later.
This story flashed into my mind a couple of weeks before this past Christmas. Gloria and I had driven downtown to attend a choir concert in which our eldest grandson was performing. As a coddled member of the bench, my downtown adventures can usually be accommodated by parking at the courthouse. To this point in my cocooned existence, I had been spared the joys of street parking in the age of “Park Plus” and the Calgary Parking Authority. I had seen people trying to read the on-screen prompts, and figure out the zone number of the area in which they had parked, but, apart from tackling a parking machine at the University, I was a neophyte in the world of electronically controlled parking.
I dropped Gloria off at the concert venue, and was able to eventually find an unoccupied parking spot within the same time zone. I struggled in the bitter December wind to read the cryptic instructions on the screen of the parking machine (note to Calgary Parking Authority: black letters which are only technically darker than their grey background are not easy to read through a plastic cover which could, at best, be described as having been made translucent through age or abuse).
Eventually, I was able to persuade the machine to take my credit card, and, with great relief, I authorized whatever price was demanded (for all I know, I bought a life interest in the parking spot, or, at the least, I have rented it until this coming Easter). As I made my way to the church in which the choir was performing, I was struck with the realization that it was likely that I was now entering that phase of my life in which the technological world would, with increasing frequency, be doing laps around me. I confess to wondering: “What will be my “VCR”?
As a post script, I am happy to report that a subsequent Christmas adventure in “unlocking” an iPhone for the benefit of a grandchild was successfully, though admittedly not expeditiously, concluded, so it would seem that I have not yet hit the brick wall. That it is coming, I have no doubt, but I am quite pleased that it will be something more formidable and exotic than “on street parking”.
The Honourable Judge A.A. Fradsham is a Provincial Court Judge with the Criminal Court in Calgary. His column "A View From the Bench" has been a highlight in the Canadian Bar Association publications for over 15 years.