HELLO AND WELCOME
This is my first blog. I am a complete novice to this, so right from the start I want to apologise for an almost inevitable sense of amateurism about techniques, presentation and accepted modes of address associated with the blogger's art. I will, I hope, get better in time!What I want to do with this blog is tell you a little about my life - nothing very dramatic or even unusual there - and try to use this as a means to offer some observations about the current times we live in and hope that someone else will read it and feel able to add their own thoughts and opinions.
I was born in 1950 and therefore am what is often termed a 'baby-boomer' (an odd description for someone just drawing their state pension). My generation is often presented as one having lived during a golden age of prosperity and all-round good fortune, now living a life of tranquil ease with a good pension and owning a property of ever increasing value. This to be contrasted with my children's generation, condemned to a life of ever-increasing years of work, little chance of getting on the 'property ladder' ( a curiously British way of describing your home) and pensions fast disappearing as the state retreats leaving a fully privatised world. There is, of course, a general truth in all of this. But there are also huge exceptions in both pictures, and it's worthwhile trying to consider some particularities amidst the generalisations.
I remember very little about my very early years for reasons which will become apparent later. I was the second of three children, my brother being three years older and my sister following quickly after me (she was very premature). These were the years some time after the end of the war, but rationing was still in force and bomb sites were common in most towns. I lived in outer London and we used to play on these derelict sites, climbing up onto exposed joists and down into rubble-filled cellars. There was little concern on the part of parents about where their children got to when allowed out - which was almost every day - or much concern about when we should return. I don't remember any terrible accidents, though I'm sure they must have occurred. My own children's play and activities has been carefully supervised and controlled, whether going to friend's houses or to organised activities / classes, and this continues to be the case with my grand-children. Childhood experience for many children has changed completely from that of my generation, and this must reflect greater anxiety - and better awareness of potential dangers -on the part of parents. But something unique to childhood - discovery, excitement and learning your own strategies for dealing with the world - has also been lost.
My mother and father were very young parents and we all, for a few years, lived in a small flat in my grand-parent's rather large house. I remember nothing of these years. My father died and my mother found herself with three children under the age of five. I have no memories of my father at all. We were moved by the council to the ground floor of a house that had been deserted by the owners during the war, and was now used for homeless families. Another family was housed upstairs. This is the first - I was going to say home, but it's not quite the right word - place I really remember living in. It was bitterly cold, sparsely furnished and had an outside toilet that was an ordeal to use, and in cold weather, you would only use it when you couldn't hold it any longer. My mother's income was her widow's pension (10 shillings a week -50p) and child allowance. With such young children she couldn't work at this time and we lived in poverty. We were clothed from jumble sales and were often hungry. We three children slept in one bedroom and it seemed to me that being in bed was the only time I ever felt warm.
In contrast, my first child was born after we had purchased our first house - a two-up two-down end of terrace with a long, narrow garden, - and, though money was tight, we all ate well and were not cold in winter. In a few years we bought a larger house with three bedrooms, where our second daughter was born. Some years after that, we moved to a four bedroomed house and our son was born. Both myself and my wife always worked full-time throughout our working lives. This material progression is, I think, what is meant by the half-envious, half-pejorative term 'baby-boomer'. What the term does not address is how material advance came about or why it is now under threat. Rather than look at these questions, it is simpler and easier to point an accusing finger at an entire generation and to suggest that the apparent turn-around in generational fortunes is either an a-historical and a-political natural phenomenon or it's all our fault!
to be continued......
I was born in 1950 and therefore am what is often termed a 'baby-boomer' (an odd description for someone just drawing their state pension). My generation is often presented as one having lived during a golden age of prosperity and all-round good fortune, now living a life of tranquil ease with a good pension and owning a property of ever increasing value. This to be contrasted with my children's generation, condemned to a life of ever-increasing years of work, little chance of getting on the 'property ladder' ( a curiously British way of describing your home) and pensions fast disappearing as the state retreats leaving a fully privatised world. There is, of course, a general truth in all of this. But there are also huge exceptions in both pictures, and it's worthwhile trying to consider some particularities amidst the generalisations.
I remember very little about my very early years for reasons which will become apparent later. I was the second of three children, my brother being three years older and my sister following quickly after me (she was very premature). These were the years some time after the end of the war, but rationing was still in force and bomb sites were common in most towns. I lived in outer London and we used to play on these derelict sites, climbing up onto exposed joists and down into rubble-filled cellars. There was little concern on the part of parents about where their children got to when allowed out - which was almost every day - or much concern about when we should return. I don't remember any terrible accidents, though I'm sure they must have occurred. My own children's play and activities has been carefully supervised and controlled, whether going to friend's houses or to organised activities / classes, and this continues to be the case with my grand-children. Childhood experience for many children has changed completely from that of my generation, and this must reflect greater anxiety - and better awareness of potential dangers -on the part of parents. But something unique to childhood - discovery, excitement and learning your own strategies for dealing with the world - has also been lost.
My mother and father were very young parents and we all, for a few years, lived in a small flat in my grand-parent's rather large house. I remember nothing of these years. My father died and my mother found herself with three children under the age of five. I have no memories of my father at all. We were moved by the council to the ground floor of a house that had been deserted by the owners during the war, and was now used for homeless families. Another family was housed upstairs. This is the first - I was going to say home, but it's not quite the right word - place I really remember living in. It was bitterly cold, sparsely furnished and had an outside toilet that was an ordeal to use, and in cold weather, you would only use it when you couldn't hold it any longer. My mother's income was her widow's pension (10 shillings a week -50p) and child allowance. With such young children she couldn't work at this time and we lived in poverty. We were clothed from jumble sales and were often hungry. We three children slept in one bedroom and it seemed to me that being in bed was the only time I ever felt warm.
In contrast, my first child was born after we had purchased our first house - a two-up two-down end of terrace with a long, narrow garden, - and, though money was tight, we all ate well and were not cold in winter. In a few years we bought a larger house with three bedrooms, where our second daughter was born. Some years after that, we moved to a four bedroomed house and our son was born. Both myself and my wife always worked full-time throughout our working lives. This material progression is, I think, what is meant by the half-envious, half-pejorative term 'baby-boomer'. What the term does not address is how material advance came about or why it is now under threat. Rather than look at these questions, it is simpler and easier to point an accusing finger at an entire generation and to suggest that the apparent turn-around in generational fortunes is either an a-historical and a-political natural phenomenon or it's all our fault!
to be continued......
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