Creeping into Old Age

Getting 'old' creeps up on you!  I don't feel particularly old except when I hear myself make all sorts of noises trying to get out of a chair!  If I don't go near a mirror I feel positively juvenile at times.  At times I dance round the house wielding a duster to the latest music on the radio.  At other times I sit in my chair and shout at the telly!  There's a lot wrong in the world just now.  So much discontent, anger, indignation etc. and when I find myself and hubby sitting debating the current generations I often wonder, is this what it means to be old?!  Every generation remembers their past with some level of rose coloured glasses.  My own mum lived through the second world war, too young to be involved in it but even she remembers her life as a youth being much brighter than it possibly was.    I can remember when central heating wasn't a thing; a coal fire in the living room was a thing;  black and white telly was a thing; telly finishing for the night at about 11pm was a thing; a telly in every room was unimaginable .  Outdoor toilets or shared toilets in a tenement were common things.  Playing out all day and only coming home for food was a thing; having a telephone in your pocket wasn't even remotely a thing.  Every family having a car wasn't a thing.  Speaking to relatives abroad on the phone was a rare thing, seeing your relatives abroad and talking to them whenever you want was positively science fiction.  Black and white photographs were the norm; taking photographs using a phone was not.

These photos are typical of ones from the 50's and 60's.  The tiny one of me with my uncle and gran was taken in the late 50's.  We have loads this size - 7cm x 4.5cm and the larger 9cm x 9cm square one is typical of ones from the 60's when my brother (with our other gran) was a baby.  I think they moved onto 15cm x 10cm after this and now are printed whatever size you want them to be.  We are now aware of pixels and the quality of photos we take.  Not so much back then unless you were a professional!

I don't feel that old yet so much has changed in my lifetime.  Has it changed too fast for us to keep up?  Did we always moan about the way things were or is it just that we now have such immediate access to everything that we think we know better now.  Things happened in the past that shouldn't have.  But we can't negate them by complaining and demanding current action on them.  It's history.  Thats what history is.  Things that happened in the past - the good, the bad and the downright ugly.  Things change, they move on, we learn and we know some things better now but we shouldn't wipe out the past because of that or how can we continue to grow and learn.  I despair at times for the current upcoming generations.  They want to save the world but I'm not sure they really know what they're doing.  I'm pretty sure that's an old thing to think!