Serene Sunday to you all!
People are always hankering after the 'good old days', when everything seemed innocent, simple and happy, like the young whippersnapper in the pic. I reckon, ironically, that nostalgia 's not what it used to be. It's just that we look back through rose-coloured spectacles to our youth and hey-day. I hear you cry,'But Mr William, things were better- higher moral standards and you could leave your back door open etc etc'. I still leave mine open, but that's forgetfulness!
Maybe, but if you go back not so very long ago, there was endemic polio, the Black Death, no penicillin, no anaesthetics and we lived with farm animals in our homes and died in droves in infancy. I admit you have to go back a bit for the ol' Black Death and no, I wasn't around then! I will look forward to lots of comments on all of this!
Talking of medecine, my dad always used to say that 'Medication is worse than the illness'. I am sure he had a point, but he did tend to side with the Luddites and see things in black and white, including tv -he didn't get to see that in colour.
Let me remind you of a couple more inconveniences we had. When I was young, there was no tv and we huddled round a radio to hear the news. Sound quaint? No, it was cold, no central heating or double glazing, no fridge, freezer or washing machine. Mum used a mangle for the laundry. We all nearly lost a hand in it! Yes, we made our own fun, mostly watching a spider crawl up the wall!
Cars, now when we eventually got one, it had those running boards, where you could pretend to be Al Capone and we kids sat in the back with no seatbelts. We all unwittingly played Russian Roulette as to who would go through the windscreen first! One day, my mum was driving and a wasp got into the car. She was distracted and we all ended up in the ditch. Nobody badly hurt, thankfully! Fun to look back on, but it was nearly curtains for yours truly at the time.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Were things better? I certainly loved listening to the 'crooners' back then, Frank Sinatra and Bing etc. My daughter got me a Michael Booby or Bubbly CD. She told me it was just like listening to Frank Sinatra. Well, I may be a bit mutton-jeff, but I told her' 'If I wanted to listen to Frank Sinatra, I would get a Frank Sinatra cd!' Yes, I know, I was a bit of a grumpy git that day, showing my 'gog'(grumpy ol' git) side. My old war wound was playing me up that day. Did I tell you I got shot in the Dardenelles?
Things have changed for the better in some ways. The Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, got married to her Jewish beau. Great to see this level of understanding between religions. Things were more circumcised, sorry, circumscribed, when I was young. Meanwhile, here in Northern Ireland, progress has been evidenced as the target of 30% Romans Catholics in the Police force has almost been reached. Who says miracles don't happen? It will good to see economic rather than military targets becoming the order of the day!
One person hoping to see better days currently is Mr Cameron. It's not good when people are burning effigies of you! If his ancestors are anything to go by, sabre-rattling runs in the family!-Bit of satire!
Anyway, off now to look at my photo albums of way back when. Sentimental? Well, I am only human! Although, someone messaged me the other day and asked me to reply to prove, I am human. Well, I resisted the urge to send the 2-worded one, where the second word is off!
Yours nostalgically yet always on the pulse
The blogging Gogfather!
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