Moi and Mine

Today (March 5, 2011) our Dad (Stephen Joseph William Chase) would have been 103 years old! 1908 through to 2011, what a century!

Happy Birthday Dad.... wherever you are!

[Eric]This is a list of quite a lot of things that dad witnessed and utilized in his lifetime.... I've written comments beside some of them! Why don't you see if you can write a few things down that you remember about his life in amongst the years and comments that I have added below...Could be fun!

1908: gyrocompass invented by Sperry - The year of his first appearance in Madras...

[Joy]I have never seen a gyrocompass but I have Dad's compass that he used to find true north

1909: instant coffee invented –[Eric] he preferred tea and made mum a cuppa every morning! Funny how she stopped drinking tea the moment he stopped making it for her!

[Joy]Dad's mother, Gran, would make coffee. We all loved the train station coffee made with coffee essence. I remember it being so good! Kapeeeeeeeeeeeee!

1910: Edison shows the 1st talking motion picture -

[Margo] He went to see the movie "Gandhi" and thought he would get away with it if he went to the theatre at Queensland Uni - only to be sprung by one of the Elders from Corinda! [Joy]I talked to Dad about that movie. He knew so much of the history and explained the personalities like Jinnah to me. [Eric] He didn't go to the movies much until they got to Aus and they could watch them on TV which they often did holding hands on that horrible orange sofa that they used to have before they got the one that mum still has in her apartment. [Jenny]I remember wanting to go and see the movie "My Fair Lady" with my English class. Dad absolutely refused to let me go and see it. I think it was Joy who persuaded him to let me go in the end.To this day, it is my favorite movie musical!

1911: Kettering invents the 1st automotive ignition system – [Eric]He had a Model A Ford and I remember that famous photo of him in his Bombay Bloomers with his pith hat on standing proudly beside it with his foot on the runner board... What ever happened to that photo? [Joy] You're dreaming...I never saw a photo like that!

1912: LifeSavers candy introduced –[Eric] Loved his sweets and the memory that Jemma has of him is him giving her jelly beans on Sunday nights when we used to go over for dinner - miss that breast pepper water mum [Joy] see http://www.pepperwater.com

1913: the modern brassiere and crossword puzzle are invented – [Eric]more for mum than him, but I'm sure he made a study of the first one for purely theological reasons! [Margo]

I remember the joke dad used to tell about "What did the bra say to the hat?" I'm sure you all know the answer! "You go on a head while I give these two a lift!!!" And then he'd laugh like anything!

1914: gas mask invented in time for WWI – [Eric]he was too young to notice!

1915: Pyrex invented – [Eric]A word we don't often use these days!

1916: Model T Ford prices fall to $360 –[Eric] half the 1911 price - wonder what he paid for his Model A?

1916: stainless steel invented – [Eric]one of the factories that he rented to at Chamrajpet used to make daikshees (pans)out of Stainless steel. It was outside this place that I got bit by a dog and had to get 14 injections in my stomach in case the dog was rabid! [Joy]Lucky you, I didn't even have to get rabies shots after the pet monkey bit me at Tiger Green's house.

1917: modern zipper invented – [Eric]Remember those waistcoats and bags that him and mum used to make! I loved the waistcoat with the zipper in it that he made. [Joy]I have the leather vest he made, probably in 1945.

1919: short-wave radio invented – [Eric]We used to listen to it all the time with him and mum in Red Craig, I think we had a Philips from memory! [Joy]I used to listen to Voice of America on that when we lived in Allepey.

1920: Band-Aid invented – [Eric]he always used iodine first before putting one on, and I remember how it used to sting!

1921: 1st robot designed – [Eric]No this was not mum, but she did arrive on the planet this very same year, and she's still going as strong as an Eveready battery! Could there be a connection? [Joy] between robots and Eveready batteries?

1922: insulin invented – [Eric] diabetes is something that he never had! [Margo] But Mum has it now - though she is doing really well controlling it with Apple Cider Vinegar!

[Jenny] Flash forward...mum catches dad trying to sneak out and get in the car to drive somewhere after he came back from the hospital. "Oh, I just want to see if I can still drive!" Wasn't that what he said?

1923: Garrett Morgan granted patent for the traffic signal – [Eric] he always waited till the last minute to brake! Maybe that's where I got the habit from, it’s inherited! [Margo] I remember him acting crazy driving around and around and around a circle in Madras while we kids laughed our heads off. [Joy]When Dad taught me to drive, he said there were only 3 rules: Never swerve for a chicken because you may hit a child, don't flash your lights at a bullock cart because if the bullock shies the bow will hit your windshield, and always drive astride cow dung so it doesn't mess up your tires. That's it! Oh, also, when in doubt put both feet out--brake and clutch!

1923: Clarence Birdseye introduces frozen food – [Eric] loved his greens! [Joy] Birdseye also made puddings! [Jenny] I remember dad being very interested in Gaylord Hauser (nutritionist). Dad once planted peanuts and lettuce. [Joy] He used to buy 100 pound bags of peanuts and we would all have to sit in the kitchen shelling them.

1924: spiral-bound notebooks first appear –[Eric] Always had one in his pocket...[Margo]And that note book in his pocket always had new words he was learning!

1925: Baird's mechanical TV demonstrated – [Eric]he really only got into TV in the 70's in Australia. I remember him and mum always watching Bob Dyers 'Pick a Box' sponsored by BP and Gordon Boyds Holden Showcase [Margo] When he was younger he would sit at his desk and write while Mum watched the sit-coms. He hated the laugh track - it distracted him.

1927: Farnsworth's electronic TV demonstrated – [Eric] loved watching TV in his last years sitting in his arm chair in the middle of the arch in front of the piano at Aldridge St!

1928: Fleming discovers penicillin; Schick patents the electric shaver –[Eric] he used to use his electronic shaver every morning while sitting at his desk looking at himself in his little mirror... [Margo] And he would stroke under his chin with the back of his hand two or three times. He said that was why he never had loose skin there!

1929: Zenith Radio starts year as lowest priced stock on NYSE -- ends year as highest priced stock due to demand for its radios; Paul Galvin (later president of Motorola) invents the car radio... he had one in his Valiant Hemi Pacer [Jenny] I don't believe dad ever bought stocks! Did he? And he always paid me back if he borrowed a stamp! "Here you go, Jenny, here's 15 cents for the stamp!"

1930: Scotch tape invented at 3M; first jet engine designs –[Eric] Always had a scotch tape dispenser on his desk! [Margo] He taught me how to save twine from parcels. He always had a ball of string somewhere.

1931: electron microscope invented – [Eric]he never used one of these but he was a great studier of the environment. [Margo] But he did have a beautiful big magnifying glass in his desk drawer - used to look at his stamp collection with it. [Joy] I used to make fires with that magnifying glass and some cotton.

1932: good year for photography: Land invents the Polaroid process; zoom lens and light meter are also invented… [Eric] I remember the old box camera he used to have in the leather case... wonder what happened to it? [Joy] I have it, if you mean the Cannon [Margo] But we all remember the Pailard Bollex 8mm movie camera and the reels and reels of film he took of baby Eric growing up that has disappeared into the ether! [Joy] I have those too. I spent a lot of money to get some of those films made into CDs and gave them to Eric. "When I retire" I'll try to get some put on YouTube so they can always be seen. [Jenny] I know exactly where all that stuff is, along with a whole bunch of other sentimental memory items. ERIC CHASE HAS THEM!

1933: stereo records developed – [Eric]Do you remember the old one we had in Red Craig? I remember the Jim Reeves LP that we had a few others... can you remember any of the old ones we had? [Margo] Moonlight Sonata [Joy]I still love the Moonlight Sonata. Must have listened to it 100 times. [Jenny] I used to listen to lots of 78 records that Uncle Lenny gave us. You know, we certainly didn't buy them. I think he gave them all to us after Barry died. I recall Connie Francis, and yes, Jim Reeves in particular! [Joy] I remember Len and Daph introduced me to Nat King Cole. Didn’t you get the Mona Lisa? Peak billboard position # 1 for 8 weeks in 1950 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxEmnxiUz8w Dad did not live to see YouTube, the World Wide Web, or Google. Not even email.

1934: first magnetic tape recorders for broadcasting –[Eric] He had tapes of everything! spools of tapes of sermons etc... [Joy]There are still some of those large spools of sermons he gave. We have to figure out how to transfer them to podcasts or digital audio somehow.

1935: Dupont invents nylon; radar first developed; and beer is canned for the first time – [Eric] He definitely did not have a can of beer ever! [Joy] but he smoked a cigarette or bidi once when he was about 15 and had to go to the dhobi ghats to pick up the laundry for his mother—that’s what he told me.

1936: Colt's revolver patented –[Eric] he only liked shooting the crows with a .177 air rifle. [Margo] He also made "shots" out of clay and used them in a catapult to scare off the cat that used to come into the back garden at Aldridge Street [Jenny] And I have that catapult along with some mud balls that he made to use with it! [Joy] he would also kill crows and then cut off one wing and hang it up to stop them from robbing whatever.

1937: photocopier invented – [Eric] I remember the old Roneo machine that we had which was before the photo copier [Margo] I remember when I was working for Chase Products having to fix the jammed paper in the photocopies and having to ask "which one of you parents touched the Photo copier?" He used to ask us "Which one of you children touched the.... (whatever) when we were little!

1938:ballpoint pen and Teflon invented – [Eric] loved his pens and kept his pencils till there was nothing left of them, even had a special holder for them!

1940: Jeep designed [Eric] Joy was born [Joy] What joy!

1941: aerosol spray cans developed. [Joy]I remember how they used to spray our bedrooms with DDT Flit.

1943: synthetic rubber invented, along with the Slinky and Silly Putty- [Eric]He brought a slinky back from the US once!

1944: synthetic cortisone developed [Joy] Margaret, later nicknamed Margo, was born.

1945: atomic bomb developed and used – [Eric] he was there when this was dropped on Hiroshima, and so was mum and Joy! [Jenny]I don't think any of them were actually "there" or they wouldn't be here today!They were alive, but living in a different country! [Joy] strange that I don’t remember it ever being discussed although I remember other conversations about the war including the day when Dad came home early from the bank and said to Mum “the WAR is over.” I think that would have been V-E Day 8 May 1945.

1948: Velcro and the jukebox invented [Joy] Jennifer (Jenny, Jen) was born [Margo] He went from buttons, to zips to Velcro!

1949: prepared cake mixes introduced [Margo] He didn't make cakes but I miss his Uppu Mau! [Joy]and his carrot hulva

1950: Diner's Club introduces first credit card [Joy] He never liked credit.

1951: Super Glue invented; so is first video tape recorder – [Eric]he used to use Araldite but kept Super Glue in his top drawer to fix those things that Araldite couldn't fix [Jenny]And he usually did a lousy job at gluing things! But he thought it always looked brand new again!

1954: oral contraceptives invented; Ray Kroc starts franchising McDonald's

[Joy] the Pill was only invented then but it did not become widely available until the late 60s when Syntex started mass producing it and launched the sexual revolution that Dad was certainly not part of.

1955 AT LAST A BOY! [Joy] ERIC STEPHEN CHASE was born in Sri Lanka.

1956: first use of computer hard disk [Joy] When Dad came to America in around 1966 I took him to look at a computer at a bank and it took up a huge specially air conditioned room and he looked at it and said " I have no interest, I'm retired". I often wish he was alive to communicate via email because he only used to write to me twice a year--for my birthday and to thank me for sending him a card for his birthday. [Margo] He bought a Word Processor but had no idea how to use it. I went with him to Word Processor Classes at Queensland Uni. He typed 22 pages of his Master's Thesis on it and pressed what he thought was "Save" and wiped it all out. He never used it again. He went back to his little portable typewriter rubbing out mistakes with the blue/grey circular typewriter rubber. He always typed using Carbon Paper so he had a copy of all his letters.

1958: Noyce (at Fairchild Semiconductor) and Kilby (at TI) both submit patents for integrated circuits

1959: important to generations of girls -- the Barbie Doll is introduced [Margo] He maintained till the end that women had smaller brains than men even though one of his professors at Fuller was a woman. He said the exception just proved the rule. He also didn't believe in women preachers - but I think he was secretly quite proud of me! [Joy] If women have smaller brains, it is only because they are more efficient! [Jenny] There were three "exceptions" right under his nose! His three daughters who all have a couple of degrees after their names!

1961: valium invented – [Eric] he only ever used Aspro! [Joy]You can buy valium OTC in India, still

1962: audio cassettes developed – [Eric] he had plenty of these, do you remember the cassette player he kept behind his desk that he used to listen to his Greek and Hebrew on?

1964: BASIC computer language; permanent-press materials

1966: electronic fuel injection developed for cars – [Eric] Who could forget the first Chrysler they bought when they came to Australia [Margo] Or the Studebaker they had in India that would stall, he would open the hood and hit something in the engine and it would start. He even had a special piece of wood with him in the car in case he needed it. [Joy] No, you didn't hit something, you had to have a wooden coat hanger with a hook on the end.

1967: first handheld calculator – [Eric] he had the big one of these that used to sit on his desk that I was not allowed to touch! But I never was good with obedience! [Margo] I remember Tim and him racing each other adding up a "row of figures". Tim, on the Calculator, and Dad just using a pencil. Dad won... and got the answer right!

1974: Post-it Notes and liposuction invented – [Eric] he always used the back of envelopes and scrap paper for his post it notes and would never have wasted a new piece of paper on a note! [Jenny] Flash back now to the depression...didn't he used to turn used envelopes inside out, re-glue them and use them again? [Margo] He would save all the Customs Tarrif Updates that came every two weeks and write on the back of the page which was usually blank. He had a special place for this scrap paper.

1983: soft bifocal contact lenses introduced [Margo] Dad always took his glasses off when he wanted to read fine print! [Joy] Me, too.

1986: Microsoft's initial public offering (IPO); first disposable camera introduced [Jenny]

DAD CAME TO THE STATES TO GET HIS MASTERS DEGREE FROM FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. At that time, he was the oldest graduate they had ever had.

1990: Tim Berners-Lee develops protocol for both World-wide web (WWW) and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) – [Eric] If only he was alive today he would have loved the Internet and all that he could have learned on it.... I could just see him getting up early and getting on to his lap top to study! not forgetting to give mum a cuppa at 6.00am. He missed this era by just a few short years! [Margo] He did buy a set of Encyclopedia Britanica and told Tim he was going to leave it to him when he died. I remember Tim groaning! [Joy]Wish I had that set. I finally got a set of 1911 from work. It is now completely on the Internet as the copyright has lapsed and it has the best info on India then, every town, every river...

1991: first digital answering machine [Joy] Interesting, by 1992 when I was looking for a job I was told by one possible employer that she didn’t have time to keep calling me and that if I didn’t have an answering machine I would never get a job

1992: smart pill invented [Jenny] I went back to school to get my teaching degree. Mum and dad helped pay for that. I was one "smart pill" after that!!

1993: Intel introduces Pentium family of 32-bit microprocessors.... [Margo] Dad wrote quite a few books on that little typewriter. I met a man in India who said he is still teaching from them. So as the Scripture says, "He being dead yet speaketh"

[Eric] Dad missed the arrival of the DVD, Java, Sun Microsystems, Real Audio broadcasting from your Desk Top, The arrival of the lap top, Web TV, Viagra, Google beta testing its search engine, Skype, YouTube and the completion of the mapping of the Human DNA. The takeover of the world by FaceBook and most importantly my daughter Miranda and my three granddaughters! But mum got to see all of these and even has her own page on FB page.... Amazing!

Wonder what other changes we will witness before we leave the planet...[Joy] hope they're all good!

Here are my predictions... [Eric]

We will see the fall of all Despots through the power of online connectivity that the people have been given inadvertently with the arrival of the Internet, Skype and FB [Joy] not forgetting Twitter

We will see huge swings in climate and changes to the face of the earth movements

We will see the most incredible changes in world finances and governments that were at the top of the food chain come down a peg or two and those at the bottom come up the ladder.

But most of all we will see the awareness of people grow to the point where more will know more which will stop the few dominating the most....

Connectivity has only just begun and we will see the graphic interface of individuals one with another no matter where they are on the planet... this is happening now but you havent seen anything yet... 'Beam me up Scotty' is going to be a term we hear more

than just on old Star Treck reruns! Interesting times we live in! [Joy] Yeah, they say that's the Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times!" I believe, however, that the best is yet to come and I pray that we and our children will experience it. AMEN!

Love ya

Eric Chase, with inputs by Joy Chase, Margo Heyburn and Jennifer Summerset (siblings and adult children of Stephen and Isabel Chase).

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