| View Blog
|
|
|
|
Nostalgia allows us to look back at where we have come from, be it through rose tinted glasses or not. Whether your childhood was good, bad or indifferent, the experiences you had there, make you what you are now.
It is somewhat disconcerting to see aspects of your personal history disappearing though. In my case, all the schools I attended have disappeared, having been demolished to make way for new housing and road developments. Some of the things we took for granted in my youth are now exhibits in museums, like the "wringer" which was hooked on to the side of a sink to "wring" the water out of clothes before they were hung outside to dry.
School back then was much different to that of these days. We accepted that we should have respect for our teachers, and if we didn't we got the belt - a long leather strap which was pulled down hard across your upturned palms as a punishment. In fact, some of the staff did abuse it but the majority used it right and it was a bit of a deterrent. Truth be told though, we sometimes did deserve it and some even liked it, especially on a cold winters morning when it made your hands instantly warmer!
It was bad enough getting into trouble with the school teachers too but if they told your parents, that was worse. I recall that most adults were firm but fair in those days though. There was no excessive punishment but if you did wrong, they knew it and didn't try to defend their precious' son or daughter.
Many of the toys we had and some of the games we played have also gone now, lost in the mists of time, forever disappeared into obscurity. I can remember reading books where older people lamented wistfully about their childhood, and I thought that I would never be like them.!
We never had computer video games then, (although I have since played and enjoyed those) and we made our own props to play with. Old tin cans, a football (soccer ball), park benches, low walls - all of them became something different to us, dependent on what game we were playing. There was no desire to destroy something, to burn it or write graffiti all over it. That simply wasn't even a concept that entered our heads then.
We were always outdoors when it was dry though, and especially so when it was sunny. You don't get so many sunny days in Scotland, although when you look back, it often seems as if even the summers themselves were better when you were younger.
Summer usually meant the carnival/ fair was in town and we would sometimes go to it in the evenings or after school, to go on the rides and see the side shows. After a certain time in the evening though, the carnival was largely given over to teenagers and it even occasionally became a flash-point' for rival gangs, of which we had many.
The gangs then were a different breed too and even among them there was some code of honor. They only fought rivals and never, ever bothered anyone who was not a gang member. There was no public drinking of alcohol and even no swearing in public. They weren't all nice boys' of course, many of them were constantly tooled up' with knives and hammers, but they knew there were lines that even they did not cross.
When it was not good enough to go out, we either played games indoors or watched some television. In those days, everything on the television was in black and white only and the television set itself had large light-bulb type valves which had to warm up before a picture appeared. Those same valves were responsible for the many of us staring at the screen, when the set was turned off at the end of the night, until the tiny white dot disappeared.
In place of a remote control, there were large circular buttons on the front of the television which you had to twist to tune in the different television stations. Who can forget the "fun" we had playing with the horizontal hold to stop the picture from spinning wildly every time a vehicle passed by outside?
Nostalgia may be something which only boring old people (like me) can enjoy, but it is one of the few legacies that we just know everyone will get to share - one day!
|
|
Posted by scotslad60 on 2008-05-14 12:39:22 | Rating: | Views: 103
|
|
| |
|
|
| Blog Comments
|
|
|
|
I remember when i was young,whenever i heard that phrase "When i was your age" i swore i would never say it.
Guess what? I say it all the time, lol. xx
|
|
Posted by bubblydi
on 2008-05-18 16:22:55
|
|
|
|
|
Awww, are you feeling like an old man? lol :p
|
|
Posted by Forgetmeknot
on 2008-05-23 13:06:45
|
|
|
|
|
|
Email This to a Friend 
