Soooooooo Last Century Dahlin
There is nothing like having Teenagers having a sleep-over in your house to make you feel REALLY old.
They wear their youth like badges of honour and make you feel so insignificant…they always have something better to do than spend time with you. Although today’s teenagers spend less and less time outdoors, this usually does not translate into the generations spending more time together. Teenagers have bedrooms with closed doors. If you are present when they are in occupation, it is clear that your function is to provide the snacks and beverages (should they tear themselves away from what ever it is they are doing up there).
However in this multi channel, X-box, social networking sites, mobile phone texting obsessed era… how nice that the boys said to me they’d actually like to sit down and watch a costume drama with me. They said they thought I would like it as ‘people your age’ like BBC dramas set in bygone ages.
I was quite touched… apart from the ‘people your age’ comment – but from teenage boys….. I was quite touched… especially when they told me it was gonna be on the BBC. After all the BBC is renown for its historical recreations… no one brings the past alive better than Auntie Beeb.
Imagine my horror when I realised that authentic historical artefacts for this by-gone age were. 12 inch records, Naked Lady pens, Fake Ice cubes, Mullet haircuts, Colour changing T-shirts and ladies wearing a Snood. The programme described to me by three teenage boys as a ‘costume drama set in a by-gone age’ was none other than Ashes to Ashes. A programme in which a time travelling cop ends up in the early 1980’s.
To a group of 13 year old boys – the days of my youth were as historic as an adaptation of Howard’s End.
Trying to wear my mortification with indifference, I sat whilst the teenagers gawaffed with laughter.. they had just seen a character produce a BT phone card…. Of course being products of the age of the mobile phone, they find it hard to comprehend any sort of life before cellular technology. My Gods they do make me feel OLD.
I was once told (by my father) that you are officially old if you have a clear adult memory that dates back 20 years. So according to him you are officially old in the
Of course with the generational split that night round our TV, it became clear that a programme like Ashes to Ashes could do that list for me. The kids seemed to like having someone who could explain this by-gone era to them; I had to explain sweat bands being worn as a fashion accessory (when clearly there was little chance of sweat dripping into your eyes whilst sitting in an air conditioned pub). As the camera passed lovingly over a Subbuteo set and the kids asked if the thing was an ancient foosball board. When I explained what it was and that to play we would flick the players to make them move…the kids just wept with mirth at the pointlessness of it all. They were rather relieved to run back up stairs and switch on FIFA Manager 09.
It did not escape me that today’s children were sitting guffawing at depictions of young people of the 1980’s and those young people were the children of the 60’s and 70’s. I must admit I got quite defensive about how much nicer we were to our elders. I recall watching Happy Day’s in the 1970’s and thinking how lovely life must have been in the 1950’s. It didn’t occur to me to snigger at the way life was lived then.
I began to wonder if today’s kids are just spoilt by over exposure to the easy life... I began to drift back in my mind to my childhood. We could not have retired to play FIFA Manager...we did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. But did we suffer as a consequence of a life less sophisticated than now?
Of course I had to pick up the phone and moan to my mates… however I was a little surprised by the reactions.
Judge to yourself – here’s two of them:
Emmm I was born in the 70s and glad actually. It seems more families stayed together - I had a stay-home mum while dad went to work daily – that’s how it was for most families. I think it made us more stable than today’s kids. There was less ready cash but much more freedom to explore our world - we played outside all the time - in the fields, the woods, by the stream and river, in the barn etc – we didn’t have technology cause there wasn’t any and besides there wasn’t a lot of money around so no one had many toys – or clothes for that matter. Had chores assigned - and forced to do them. Stricter discipline allround though- but I think that made us better adults. . I actually think we were better off.
AND
Well, if you watch old t.v. shows---it makes the 60s look like a great time with no troubles or anything. But when I grew up in reality, there were riots going on, so many different movements, wars, assassinations, drugs, etc. In was a time of great change but everything was unstable. It was a whole new era. However, it was still a pretty cool time (think music/clothes) and shaped our society today. But was it better than today? Ummm… no money. no fancy clothes, limited playthings, black and white telly with 2 channels. Forget to mention the cane at school, slap from parents when cheeky and Santa only left an orange, a 10 shilling note and an annual, but, it taught us survival and I’m here to prove it.
Ummmmmmmm….yeah well I’d forgotten most of that! No one had money, we had to do chores, routine hitting of kids by adults, the world in upheaval, black and white tv and Santa bringing fruit , blue peter annuals and the equivalent of 50p!
But also if you look at what my mates were saying there is a breathtaking freedom that we had that today’s children will never experience. Things have changed. Well that is the passage of time things HAVE to change. But have we changed for the better?
It’s hard not be nostalgic about the past… but I wonder, are today’s kids spoilt or are we just nostalgic about a past that never actually happened the way we remember it.
We are more protective of our children today. We do not let them out. We have an irrational fear of violent crime and as such prefer our children to find entertainment indoors - so we take advantage of the technological advances and furnish them with X-boxes, Playstations, personal computers and the like – though in reality we use them as child minders so we can get on with the stuff our parents could whilst we were ‘outside’. We ensure our children have mobile phones so they can contact home base at any time on the rare occasions they are unescorted – though in reality they just use them to play their personal music loud on buses. I don’t see the generations spending much time talking to each other. I think we think we care more… but I wonder if we do?
My parents by today’s standards were quite cavalier about the welfare of their three daughters. I’m not saying that it was like growing up in
I was popped into a brightly painted cot and licked and chewed all the lead-based paint away. There were no child locks on cabinets or soft edges added to furniture. I have photos of me sitting on the lino playing with pans whilst my mother held boiling pots less than a few feet over head. I fell out of trees, off bunk beds, ate worms, had fist fights, and played with leather balls that REALLY hurt. I was never really given guidance on how to amuse myself but I was expected to just know my actions had consequences. When I got hurt (as I did often) I recall the words “That’ll teach ya” said than once.
Things we’d never expose a 21st century child to were routine. No one wore seatbelts, we’d squash far too many people in a car, and to ride up front with Dad was a huge treat. Driving to parties or weddings or pubs and driving home again was normal and I never recall hearing the term ‘nominated driver’ or seeing anyone decline a beer because of driving. On the subject of drinking we drank regularly from public fountains and shared not only drink but chewing gum with our mates without a single concern for germs. As for food I’d make sandwiches with only SUGAR as a filling, or drip my bread into the grill pan or the saved ‘drippings’ from roasted meat and drink about a gallon of Cresta… which was bright blue so must have been loaded with e’s… but no one worried about my diet or asked about my 5 a day!.
No one EVER asked us where we’d been. We made friends and enemies with kids we found outside. Parents never got involved with our scraps we had to sort it out ourselves. My mum used to open the front door and toe me and my sisters out to play with the instructions to come home when it was dark. Thanks to a bus pass called the Red Bus Rover, sometimes I’d have put many miles between me and home – and without any form of contact till I turned up hungry on the doorstep after twilight. Come on… imagine you heard of a parent allowing a child to do that today!
However, the freedom my mates spoke about the freedom to explore our world is something today’s kids do not have. Our children may spend more time trapped under the same roof as us… but are we talking to them? Are we comfortable enough with feeling old to tell them what is was like in our day? Is it any wonder that teenagers laughs when they sees a recreation of the 1980’s.
So there I was, sitting on the sofa with three teenage boys watching Ashes to Ashes. They looked at me as if I was the font of ancient historical knowledge… and yeah it made me feel old, but if I flip this on its head they do come from a different world from the one I knew at their age.
You can’t cheat age. Eventually something will happen that will make you realise that the reason why it feels times have changed is because they have.
So that’s that… it’s official I come from a time before X-box, social networking sites, mobile phone texting... so that means I have adult memories that are 20 years old. I come from a different time to the time the Teenagers of now have ever experienced... so that means it was a by-gone age. And unless I wish to pull on my leg warmers or wear a day-glo top I will have to face facts…. Ashes to Ashes IS a costume drama. I mean after all, everything in it is (and I quote) “SO last Century” !!
grab a coat and take a journey back in time. fantastic observations and its like Jax has managed to extract my own personal memories.
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