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Yet another tiresome meme appears on social media, decrying the kids of today and harking back to a kindler, gentler world which never really happened. For the purposes of ripping it apart, I’ll copy and paste it for your delectation:
WE ARE A GENERATION THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK.
A generation that walked to school and then walked back.
A generation that did their homework alone to get out asap to play in the street.
A generation that spent all their free time in the streets with their Friends.
A generation that played hide and seek when dark.
A generation that made mud cakes.
A generation that collected sports cards.
A generation that found, collected and washed & Returned empty coke bottles to the local grocery store , then bought chews mojo’s, black jack’s and a caramac chocolate bar with the money.
A generation that made paper toys with their bare hands.
A generation that appreciated the dolly or car you received for Christmas 
A generation who respected their elders.
A generation who bought vinyl albums to play on record players.
A generation that collected photos and albums of clippings of their life experiences as a Kid.
A generation that played board games and cards on rainy days.
A generation whose TV went off at midnight after playing the National Anthem.
A generation that had parents who were there.
A generation that laughed under the covers in bed so parents didn’t know we were still awake.
A generation that is passing and unfortunately it will never return no matter how hard we try.
I loved Growing up when I did. it was the best of times. X
The first thing I’ll say about it is this. Clearly those who share and like this post and others like it recognise a version of it from their own lives. I certainly recognise aspects of it myself, like walking to school, playing outside pretty well all the time, getting ripped off by companies selling ‘sports cards’ and buying vinyl records. But I have a bit of a problem with some of it.
I didn’t respect all of my elders and indeed learned early on that respect was earned, not simply handed out willy-nilly. And my parents weren’t always “there”, wherever “there” is because my parents separated when I was knee-high to a grasshopper and my mum had to go out to work so we, or more accurately I, could eat. Presumably, those who share and like this meme would have preferred it had my mum loafed about on benefits in order to be “there”? That would have been the alternative. Yet I suspect those bemoaning the current generation would be fuming if she did that, too.
I disagree with the idea that everything used to be better than it is today. Our house was completely unheated, save for a coal fire in the living room and we regularly had frost on the inside of the windows. My grandparents had an outside toilet and no bathroom at all, something I didn’t find odd until I was much, much older. Christ, we didn’t even have telephones so when my mum went into labour with me, she had to get the bus into town and walk uphill to the Bristol Maternity Hospital on her own because there was no way of telling anyone else. It’s worth pointing out that my mum never once complained about it because she came from poverty, knowing it as a way of life. But what great days, eh? Who wouldn’t want to go back to that period in time?
It’s as if the things we take for granted these days are all bad. Mobile phones, the internet, colour TVs, dishwashers, having access to a car, computers – bad, bad, bad. Far more enjoyable to sit in one room, snuggled up in blankets on a cold winter’s night, watching a tiny crackling black and white TV in the corner of the room with a grand total of three channels to watch. “Those were the days,” my grandparents didn’t say, “When if you wanted a wash, all you had to was strip off in the kitchen and flannel yourself down with water from an ancient wall heater. Luxury.”
Sure, there is plenty wrong with life today, much of which has been caused by politicians we have voted for. And yes, the greed is good, I want it all and I want it now culture of the Margaret Thatcher era has never gone away. Not all of us are like that, though. We love our families, we believe our children are living better lives growing up than we did and I’d like to think they respect us for it.
It could be that people who share and like these memes are talking about their own lives and their own children, which is very sad. I’m not sure that if my own kids were disrespectful towards me that I’d make a public fuss of it, but each to their own, eh?
Were things much better in the “old days”? Well, I don’t think so. My children appear to have far more interesting lives than I did, with a myriad of opportunities I never had. I’d have hated it if their upbringing was anything like mine in stone age Britain where the very height of technology was a toaster.
The good old days? Only if your life today is totally shit. And maybe that’s the real point, here.
