Father And Son
Mar. 29th, 2019 08:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI find I'm thinking a lot about my father. Nothing deep, just picturing him, cap on head, as he was at weekends, Doing the things I'm now beginning to do- like digging and edging and pruning. It's how he spent so much of his free time.
I suppose that- like most of his generation- he came out of the war thinking, "That's enough excitement for one lifetime." It helps explains why the 1950s were so dull and drab- and why when the postwar generations started thinking, "Hey a little excitement would actually be rather nice," he and his lot opposed us so resolutely.
So, he'd be out in the garden, doing careful, peaceful things- and I'd be up in my bedroom- keeping out of his way- reading something like The Three Musketeers or Beau Geste or Alan Quartermain.
Have I had excitement in my life? Oh, yes. Plenty, thank you. But, unlike my father, who got more than he probably wanted in a brief four-year period, I've spread mine out over the decades...
I suppose that- like most of his generation- he came out of the war thinking, "That's enough excitement for one lifetime." It helps explains why the 1950s were so dull and drab- and why when the postwar generations started thinking, "Hey a little excitement would actually be rather nice," he and his lot opposed us so resolutely.
So, he'd be out in the garden, doing careful, peaceful things- and I'd be up in my bedroom- keeping out of his way- reading something like The Three Musketeers or Beau Geste or Alan Quartermain.
Have I had excitement in my life? Oh, yes. Plenty, thank you. But, unlike my father, who got more than he probably wanted in a brief four-year period, I've spread mine out over the decades...
no subject
Date: 2019-03-29 01:17 pm (UTC)I'm thinking how class-conscious we were, and how conformist, and how dreadful the food was and how boring the clothes were and how tame the popular music was...
I like black and white- but I think the film culture of the 50s was much less interesting than what came before and after. 40s film was dark and romantic, 60s film was youthful and energetic- and in between came Rock Hudson and Doris Day.