Today's Youth

This Blip was inspired by German TV (ZDF) programme last night, celebrating it's 50 anniversary.

I do not prescribe to the group that claims today's youth are weak etc. Times change & just as Michelangelo's grandfather no doubt got very angry at his grandson's doodles on scraps of paper instead of being in the olive or wine plantations, so there are new horizons & challenges for each generation.

What I do think, my generation of +55, has become weaker. The blip is of me & my mother in October 1962, the half term at my 1st (boarding) school in the UK (I was born & raised in the Caribbean.) My father had returned to Trinidad in September & was daily in our thoughts as the Cuban Missile Crisis was at its peak, WW3 just around the corner. 

Had been kitted out in September by Gorringe's Dept. Store in London with the school uniform - everything a little large so as to last at least the next 3 years. Now some may have read my ramblings on Monday & Tuesday regarding old times. Well, the winter of 1962/3 was the 3rd coldest since 1659! Now look at my uniform which consisted of socks up to but not over the knee (they were grey with a red top folded over & garters to hold in place) and, for winter, Harris tweed SHORTS.

For the Winter 1967/8, we senior boys were allowed long trousers. This was our daily uniform regardless of the weather. I don't think we even had track suits for games, only if in a team playing against another school.

And now I am complaining about this year's weather?! Thinking about it, I now know why I have such a disturbed personality - my mother returned to Trinidad after the Christmas holidays & I didn't see my parents again until July when I flew home for summer holidays. In the early years, my father's company only paid for 1 return flight a year for me & my parents for holiday in Europe every 2 years! Were things better then?