All These Gadgets Run On Time Ours

In the beginning, Neanderthal man live in cave. Woman, too. He make spear to kill tiger. He hunt tiger, then butcher beast. She make camp fire to cook flesh of tiger. She make body covering from skin of tiger. They grow grape. Stomp on grape. Drink juice of grape. Get the idea?

Thanks to modern technology, modern man and woman can live like cavemen. Here’s an example. California woman grow grape. Man, too. After day at law firm, she return to 30,000-square-foot cave where she make own wine. Man and woman have $40,000 in equipment for crushing and filtering grape, for automatic sprinkler, for oak barrel. They also bake own bread in bread machine, make own yogurt in yogurt machine, make own peanut butter in peanut butter machine, take own blood pressure with blood pressure machine.

You see, as with Neanderthal man, California woman can provide all her needs from scratch - as long as she’s got the bucks. When civilization dawned, humans still baked their own bread but were able to procure the grain from a farmer. Later, they could buy bread from a baker. They would buy their wine from a wine merchant. Even before the Industrial Age, they could purchase fabric from the draper. As time went on, finished garments were professionally produced with increasing efficiency, culminating in the large piles of sweaters at Wal-Mart. Now, computers make dress patterns. Electronic sewing machines can be programmed to perform elaborate embroidery and whip up a finished buttonhole. Home serging machines allow home sewers to professionally finish seams, just as the sweatshop used to do.

Some have called this trend the professionalization of everyday life. And it is partly to blame for the tremendous time poverty that afflicts many Americans.

Before they had the technology, people had to go outside the home for most goods and services or do without. Neither option was very time-consuming. Now, they can have a fully equipped gym, apparel factory, greenhouse, bakery and concert hall in the home. As do-it-yourself activities become more automated, more people are doing more things themselves. They don’t have to, it’s true, but overscheduling is the American way.

There is now apparently a craze for rolling your own cigarettes, thanks to the availability of home cigarette-rolling machines. Smokers used to just pick up a carton of cigarettes at their convenience stores. Now, they can acquire the loose tobacco, cigarette paper, a filter (if so inclined) and the all-important rolling machine. Of course, the enormous federal and state taxes being levied on finished tobacco products have contributed to the popularity of home production. In California, a 10-pack carton of Marlboros costs about $30. The same number of cigarettes can be rolled for about $12, assuming one’s labor doesn’t count for anything.

Not content to buy their winter produce from an ordinary supermarket, many Americans are building their own high-tech greenhouses. It’s not cheap. A decent greenhouse kit starts at $5,000. Then there’s the cost of heating. Running one’s own greenhouse, even a fairly automated one, does take time. A greenhouse must be cleaned regularly to remove molds. And you still must transplant, fertilize and do all the farming basics. Some see this self-reliance as a welcome throwback to an earlier American way of life. After all, George Washington grew pineapples in his own greenhouse. The question is, would he have done so if a Safeway had been convenient to Mount Vernon?

Professionalism has invaded the home kitchen as nowhere else. Professional ranges are hot sellers. Subzero refrigerators offer restaurant-quality and quantity refrigeration. Even my ordinary appliance store range comes with a digital temperature control that allows me to set the heat level with space-age accuracy. It also has a timer that will automatically turn off the oven when I want it to. As a result, I can leave a stew bubbling in the oven without worry and go on to do 18 other things around the house.

How different it was for our grandmothers following their primitive recipes that read “bake in medium oven until done.” When they had a cake in the oven, they had to give it their almost undivided attention.

Somehow, the more time-saving devices we own, the less time we seem to have. Of course, it’s our own fault.