The language is one of the main things, with letters, or acronyms, forming a big part of conversations - especially written.  Just this week, I had these two:

LOL - not Lots of Love, but Laugh Out Loud.    And...

FIFO (which was submitted with an article and I had no idea what it meant) and had to make half a dozen phone calls (actually talking to people rather than texting) to learn the translation (Fly In Fly Out).

In case it’s not obvious, yes, technology is leaving me behind.

Anyway, my rant relates to another major change.

No more signing on credit cards - pin only!

I’m not sure whether this is a good move or not.  

It is being introduced to provide greater security for our cards, but the cynic in me has no doubt it is designed to save (or make) money somewhere along the line.

My concern though is with sections of our population, especially the oldies.

At present, I don’t have too much difficulty remembering my name, so I can always sign for my credit card dealings.

I’m not sure how I will go with a pin number - or for how long!

Just about every bit of equipment we deal with has a pin number - and we are constantly told we should change it regularly.

I hope it does not get to the point where people are not able to secure what they want because they have forgotten their   numbers.

I’m sure it will be a worry for some sections of the community.

- - - -

I’ve had some intersting feedback from a couple of my recent ravings.

First of all, I listed the things which men do which annoy women.

I received an A pass in just about all of them!

I was certainly out of the league of one well known local man who fared pretty well.

His wife sent me this comment:

“He rated himself the other evening on the irritating traits/habits and considered he rated zero on all of them!

“Well, I said to him, he must therefore be a 'girl'...but, I did agree with him.

“Fortunately for him though, his irritating habits weren't any of those listed, so there's some refining to go, but not much!”

- - - -

And the story we ran about the Parkes song.

A former local resident, Ron Stone provided the words to The 

Golden City (Parkes, My Old Home Town) - penned by a former local schoolteacher, Gordon Schofield.

It created considerable interest indeed, with the music, also written by Mr Schofield, being produced.

Anyway, one of the local residents to contact me had this to say:

“It gave me a laugh to have you mention the Parkes song in the newspaper last week.

“I thought I was the only one alive who remembered it.  

“My recollections are vague but I seem to remember Sister Brendan teaching us the song in Year 5 at Holy Family, as well as the odd hymn.

“I have searched the net over recent years looking for an easy way to obtain a copy of the song so I could prove to people it existed; all I came up with were references to it on a website.

“Anyhow what happens in my life is this:  people say where are you from?

“I say "Parkes, the golden city in the west";  they say huh?? and I sometimes explain about the song.  

“When asked to sing it, I am of course too shy to give a rendition as I only remember a couple of lines and have a voice like a banshee.   

“So nice to hear someone else remembers, lol.”

My wife Chris also remembers it.  In fact, Mr Schofield actually taught it to her at Parkes East School.

Incidentally, I attended Education Week at Parkes East and they have their own school song.   

Guess who wrote it?

Yep, Gordon Schofield.

- - - -

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

“In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular.”

​

Older Parkes residents will remember the name of Gordon Schofield and many of his very large family.

Gordon was a schoolteacher here for many years and residents would have gone to school with his children.

They have not been in Parkes for years, but are still warmly remembered.

Out of nowhere last week, his name came up once again.

Gordon wrote the lyrics and music to Parkes’ very own song - also well remembered by long time residents.  It is called  ‘The Golden City (Parkes, My Old Home Town).’

It hasn’t resurfaced in a long time but another former local, Ron Stone provided the words to the song to the Champion Post after reading of the death of Gordon at the age of 91.

People could not remember how the song went, but this week, a relative of Gordon’s, May Woods, said he had sent her the music very recently - as well as this picture (above)  of Gordon’s 90th birthday (in June 2012) with all his family.

May is now going to hand on the sheet music and words to the council so that it is always available.