Nostalgia

Have you ever heard someone say it was better in the old days?

I have.

I’ve been guilty of saying it myself.

But was it?

When I was a child, there was no such thing as Personal Computers or calculators.  Everything came out of books, and maths had to be done in your head or worked out methodically on paper.

Holidays were about joining up with other neighbourhood children and making your own entertainment.  I remember that for a long time, as a child, we didn’t have television.

It was down to the meadows near the creek to pick blackberries, swim in the creek, or raid new housing estates for offcuts of timber to build a cubby house.

Unlike today, with television, video players, movies on demand, personal computers, Game Boys and a plethora of other entertainment choices.

Were we better off back in the old days?

We were in the sun with no idea that sunburn led to cancer and death.  Sunscreen was unheard of, so in that regard, maybe not.

In those same ‘old days’, the only telephones were in the house and were expensive to use.  You could have a coloured phone so long as it was black and made of Bakelite.  Back then, it was the days of telephone boxes, the only way you could make a phone call when away from home

Now every man and his dog has a mobile phone/computer while on the move.  You see people everywhere, mobile phone in hand, staring at the screen, in cafes, on the bus or train, even walking down the street.

And then, when I was a child, I could remember my father saying it was not like the old days for him, so I had to wonder what he meant.

Perhaps it is an oft-used but less understood lament for a time when we remember we were happy and carefree, those days before mortgages, children, maxed-out credit cards, and the children’s mobile phone bills.

And certainly history to be discovered, that we might write a novel of what was an undiscovered time we never knew.