I Didn’t Break The 50s!

30 Replies

 

Technically, I was child of the 50s.  Well at least for six months. With wild abandon I guzzled homemade milk and had a bevy of staff to cater to my every need. It was paradise.

In reality, I was a child of the 60s. I do recall watching the moon landing on a black-and-white TV. We only had three stations to watch and you had to get up to change the channel. There were no cell phones or colour TVs.  The Internet hadn’t been invented. I was a kid. I went outside and played. I scraped my knees and probably bloodied my nose a few times. We could breathe the air deeply and not worry about coughing up a lung. Most recollections are idyllic.

But the 60s was also a time of war, poverty, assassinations, racism and sickness. The history books remember the bad stuff. People try not to. It was a time of Family and single incomes. Roles were expected for men and women and children. It was only in those progressive families that young girls were allowed to dream without restrictions. I didn’t know there were restrictions. But then I didn’t know what to dream.

Times were different in the past. There was good and bad. But we evolved. That sounds like a step forward but it too comes with both good and bad. We eradicated some diseases and then created new ones. We got smart and creative in how to deal with illnesses, viruses, so they too evolved.  Now we have superbugs and inefficient medicines. Nowadays we love our children to dream without restrictions but then we stress them out with the requirements to succeed. A double-edged sword.

I am in an unrepentant optimist. I believe we will solve the problems we created. Am I naïve? Perhaps. But I look around this world and I see our children recognizing the problems and standing up. They are shaming the past and working hard towards fixing the future. Will they succeed? I hope so. I doubt I’ll be around to see everything fixed. I believe we are moving in the right direction. But this is not something that can only be on the shoulders of the children. We all need to be involved. Even if it’s only in a small way. The very least we can do is support them.

Our world is a paradise. There is incredible beauty here but we must be prepared to look and to see.  We must also be prepared to defend that paradise. We only have one world and we are all in this together. It isn’t about one group, one culture, one faction. It is all of us!

 

30 thoughts on “I Didn’t Break The 50s!”

  2. pensitivity101

    Born in 1956, I’m a child of the 50s and 60s. Mum and Dad didn’t have a TV until about 1963, and it too was black and white but with only had two channels and a radio. I remember the moon landing, being allowed to stay up and watch the event in awe.
    Man has cocked up our world with greed and naivety. In many cases, IMO, parents are afraid of their children, not for them, as they lack discipline, thought and care for others. These are our future leaders and that is more scary. Like you, I doubt very much I will be around to see it fixed. I just hope I’m not around to see them destroy it altogether. Just my opinion Pam.

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  3. Mark Lanesbury

    I too was only in the 50’s for 6 months, and sooo remember all those things. But my paradise I grew up in. Out in the ‘bush’ (Aussie slang for nature, simply because it is very rough and scrubby compared to all those lovely forests that are everywhere else 😀), so I learned to appreciate nature as I grew up. Many the time being bitten, stung, trampled and even a boot from a kangaroo that attacked me in my backyard 😀
    I was in an area that they released injured kangaroo’s and because their fear of us was reduced, as they grew up they knew we had nice food. He was over 6 feet, built like a gorilla, and decided that I had something he wanted. And man can they move fast. By the time I saw him it was too late 😀
    A friend I was living with was bailed up in a chicken coop for several hours by one of them. It was trying to kick the door down while she was leaning against it trying to keep it out. Should have seen the end result. The kangaroo 1, door nil.
    Anyway, and besides that, we do have a wonderful world and we are diminishing it badly. And I think like all facets of us, we aren’t looking after ourselves so our world is a reflection of who we are 🙁

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  4. Murphy's Law

    Powerful observations Pam. My formative years go back a bit further since I was born in 1939. Our first tv was a 12″ Philco. That is to say, the screen was 12′, the cabinet was ginormous! Lol. I don’t remember
    how many channels we got, all black and white of course, but it didn’t matter. I was in absolute awe of anything on that little screen.

    Rotary phone/party line. New stuff called “oleo” that came in a bag. There was a dark blob of “something” in the center and it was my job to squeeze that bag and distribute that blob throughout the white oleo until it was uniformly yellow. Good times!

    I try to keep optimistic, but occasionally something comes up and my first thought is, “we’re doomed!” I do see a glimmer of hope in our youngsters who seem to care about the environment more than we did when we were young. Then again, the environment I grew up in was much healthier and safer…..it wasn’t such an issue.

    You’re right. At the very least we need to support those who work tirelessly for this earth to be healthy. I think Mark’s last sentence says a lot….” And I think like all facets of us, we aren’t looking after ourselves so our world is a reflection of who we are.”

    I would have loved to have seen the kangaroo fiasco Mark and his friend experienced. I know it couldn’t have been funny then, but it’s damn funny now! 😂😂
    🐾Ginger 🐾

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  11. Joanne Sisco

    When I ponder too long on the ills of the world, I get terribly depressed. I prefer to stay in my happy bubble with rose-coloured glasses. Delusional, yes, I know.

    btw – I love your tag line ‘curiosity run amok’. We should all live this way!!

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