Father And Son

[poliphilo]

I 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...

Comments

[shewhomust]

Were the 50s really so dull and drab? I know it's become the received view, as a prelude to talking about how exciting the 60s were, but it seems to come from people who grew up with colour TV, never mind colour film, and can't imagine life in black and white.

Only it wasn't actually in black and white, of course. I was born in 1951, so this isn't exactly an objective view, but there was a sense of new things happening, wasn't there? We were post-war, there was the Festival of Britain, and the coronation. My parents bought a car, and we went to Europe for holidays, and marched from Aldermaston...

Sorry, I can see this becoming quite a bee in my bonnet!

[oakmouse]

I think you're right about the excitement issue. I remember a conversation between my dad, who was a Marine in WWII, and my great-uncle Charlie, who was in the Navy in WWI, about coming home to a postwar life. Charlie said something along the lines of "You just want life to be peaceful after that." Dad nodded and said something along the lines of "Right. And normal."