Monday 9 November 2009

SOCIETY: NOSTALGIA


IN MY 61st YEAR...


I miss the days of my youth.
I miss the days when there were only typewriters and you had to re-type everything to make changes.

I miss the days when computers were the size of a room and you only saw them on tv.
I miss the days before central heating when ice froze on the inside of my bedroom window and the toilet was outside in the yard and we used torn-up newspapers to wipe our bottoms.


I miss the days when there weren't any Indian takeaways and we didn't know what a pizza was and they said that cats were used in Chinese restaurants and we ate good wholesome British food.


I miss the days when everyone caught hooping cough and measles and chickpox and german measles.
I miss the days when pop music cost a lot and a long playing record was a rare treat the sort you got for christmas even if it wasn’t very good anyway and only lasted thirty minutes if you were lucky.
I miss the days when the love that dare not speak its name didn’t speak its name unless it wanted to end up in prison.
I miss the days when an examination sorted us children into sheep and goats. 


I miss the days when my aunt said wasn't it terrible about the Jews in Nazi Germany but mind you they did bring it on themselves.

I miss the days when everyone smoked like chimneys and didn’t worry about it and the upstairs on buses had their own cloud layer.

I miss the days when you didn’t see black faces and when you did you said look there’s a nigger and there was nothing wrong with that.

I miss the days when a woman's place was in the home and she didn’t complain about it.

I miss the days when I didn’t know how to make a cup of coffee because it wasn't expected of me and no-one thought to show me how.

I miss the days when vegetarians were considered to be eccentric or worse.

I miss the days when a half-caste child was a shameful thing.

I miss the days when there were only two channels on tv and both of them were in black and white and the telly broke down regularly.

I miss the days when you didn't neuter your cat you just drowned the kittens.

I miss the days of my youth

Not at all.

2 comments:

FreeRangeAuthor said...

I miss the days when Wimpy burgers were all meat, not that horrible breaded garbage that came on in the mid to late 60's. Of course now there's no Wimpy's anymore (jeesh, I just checked Wikipedia - they still exist?!!!), nor Golden Egg.

My parents toted me around Europe beginning age 5 (1962) through 1970, when my father traveled on sales junkets for his company, Tally Corp - they built digital peripherals for the emerging business market using satellite communications. We usually started out, and ended, in England - so I'm a well healed Anglophile.

My personal epitaph will read, "ENTROPY SUX!"

{the REACTIONS feature for your articles doesn't seem to be working? I've checked some but when I reload, they aren't recorded/counted. Yes, I'm logged in for blogger.}

Ian P said...

I miss the days when the Government let us get on with it.......