Second Helpings

My Generation

I spent a day with some of my gals in my favourite town of Newark last week. Of course it pimply sissed down all day, but that is becoming the norm for our wonderful English summers. Gave us plenty of time to sit in the pub pontificating anyway.

Considering our age I think we're all pretty good with technology on the whole. Between us we have computers, iPads, iPhones, Blackberries, Kindles and are always open to whatever happens next. Not bad for a load of old age pensioners.

But then that took us onto the subject of how much change we have seen in our lifetimes. We laughed and shared memories of outside loos with squares of newspaper hanging on strings for toilet paper. Tin baths in front of coal fires, ice on inside windows as we had no heating, washing days with tubs and mangles, no television and food from locally grown allotments and corner shops. Simple happy days.

But therein lies the rub. We learned from our parents and grandparents the simple pleasures and skills in life. We visited libraries and became addicted to real books. We lived through the era of vinyl records, followed by reel to reel tapes then cassettes and had beta video machines to record and play our favourite films and programmes. We learned to knit, sew, grow plants, then cook food with fresh ingredients and generally make do and mend.

So I conclude we are the elderly, very confused but still battling generation. I'm not saying there aren't youngsters today who still read, cook, bake, sew or garden, but on the whole I think it safer to say most are far more into technology than they are into handicrafts and old fashioned skills. For instance, I don't own a fridge freezer or ever use a microwave. I rarely send out for food, so most evenings I'll be cooking a meal from scratch ingredients. That's my choice of course and I wouldn't have it any other way, but it's time consuming and takes up precious energy. A lot of youngsters I know don't even have an oven in their kitchen, let alone spend any time slaving over a hot stove.

The problem is a lot of my generation have too many interests to pursue. We still like to knit and make things, bake and grow produce. We still like to listen to old music as well as keeping up with modern stuff. We still love perusing at the library, going for long walks with our cameras and would probably bring out the old watercolours to reproduce the pictures we'd taken if time allowed. But then we enjoy tackling new ideas too and need time to study and get to grips with photo editing programs, graphic designs and all the things that come with our technological devices. Being part of this generation means trying to keep up with the old and the new.

And we don't have much time left! I know I've said previously I'm sometimes glad I'm on my way out of this crazy world, but at other times I just want to put the brakes on so I can tackle all the things I'd still like to do. Maybe one of those young whizz kids out there will discover a way of suspending time or travelling backwards to help us out. All terms and conditions considered for genuine offers.