not a boomer after all

I have been reading a lot of online articles (mostly from established British hard publications such as the Independent and the New Statesman) about the Britsh baby boom and it appears that in fourteen yeas of living in the United States I have become brainwashed! Now there's a surprise...

Speaking from memory alone, I recall that as a child at Primary school in the 1960's, the school was not big enough to accommodate the numbers of children it had to serve. The building was only built in the previous decade, yet by the time I was in my fourth and final year they had added two or three "temporary" classrooms (ie on a permanent foundation but built with wood, not brick like the rest of the school) and three "mobile" classrooms (or "huts") which were parked in the corner of the playground. Forty years later, the temporary classrooms are still there, and so is one of the original "mobiles". (That dates me right there - a mobile used to refer to a classroom not a phone!.)

I remember my mother referring to the increased and rising birthrate not as a "boom" but as a "bulge" and indeed I was very much aware of being in that bulge. Even with an alphabetically ordered register in class and the girls being several places down the list from the boys, I was number 40 when we called out our numbers, and I was only halfway through the girls list.

I have over the past twenty years or so come to realise that much of what is on tv is what I am interested in. My kind of humour, my kind of drama, etc. Could be a boom-effect but more likely that until this year I fell right into that demographic that advertisers want to appeal to. This is - or was - less apparent in the UK than it is here in the US, but it is obvious that over there I was part of a bulge which was amused by both Morecambe & Wise and Monty Python and while I thnk the range of entertainment which was offered in the UK when I lived there had cross-generational appeal, in the US the elderly and the very young are neglected on network television.

Now it is clear that the boomers are back in the demographic in a different way - luxury cars and retirement options are being marketed at them (strange to hear what used to be called "progressive" music being played in commercials) but in ten years when I am 60, those early boomers will be too old and I will still be too poor.

It is true, that as a baby born in England in the 1950's I benefitted from free milk, free education right through college, free health care and was brought up to expect that it would always be so. Now my contemporaries in the UK are coming to realise that "from the cradle to the grave' only applies if you die before you retire. We don't see our future suffering from poverty and neglect in our old-age because we were taught from birth that "the authorities" would take care of those in need. Our parents were taught to respect authority because of the war (WW2); one did as one was told without question. We were brought up the same way although unlike our parents, we rebelled. However we only rebelled mildly. Teenagers argued with their parents but eventually gave in to the higher authority; those born before us became hippies and joined protest and peace marches. We did a bit of that, but not so much because... well there wasn't much point was there?

I am - or was - sandwiched between hippies and punk-rockers. The hippies were pretty much gone in the UK by the end of 1971, and the punk movement started when I was at college in about 1976. So for the four intervening years we had what people have been pleased to call the era of bad taste. I wore smocks, long flowery skirts, brown corduroy, platform shoes, mini skirts, long-sleeved shirts with short-sleeved jumpers over the top and as schoolgirls we wore tights ("panty-hose" came to England just as my friends and I turned 12 and started to be allowed to wear nylons to school) with knee-high socks over them. Grey tights mostly.

I also wanted anything I could get hold of that had sparkle and glitter (which was mostly the kind of glitter that was glued to Christmas cards) because this was also the age of Gary Glitter, David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust & Alladin Sane), Alvin Stardust, Slade and the Sweet. We cultivated straighter than straight page-boy haircuts with not a hair out of place, we wore clean and freshly-ironed clothes with creases down the fronts of our jeans (if we even had any) and Oxford Bags. Some of us would get a "shaggy perm" and others, whose parents were not liberal enough to allow their sons to grow long hair, wore a long fringe and made up for their follicular fauxs-pas by wearing extra trendy clothes.

I was a wanne-be hippy but I enjoyed the glam-era. Like my friends I was rather baffled that the "teeny-boppers" that bopped up behind us in the discos, swooning over the Bay City Rollers and Little Jimmy Osmond should also spawn a group that didn't iron their jeans wore safety-pins!

My introduction to the punk lifestyle occurred at college, at the beginning of my seond year in 1976. There was a student who I had seen around and vaguely knew but hadn't really spoken to him before. We were at an evening folk club event and he was there with a hole in the knee of his jeans held together with a safety-pin. My friend asked him why he didn't sew up the hole instead of leaving it pinned together. To us a safety pin was something that was used in an emergency and was to be hidden and here he was wearing one in full view where most of us would be ashamed to be seen with one. We obviously didn't get it and sadly we never did. I remember pogo-ing at my friend's 21st birthday party a year or so later, by which time I was clearly "past it". I did it for a laugh, not because it was something me and my friends did for real... that was something for the teenagers jsut behind us.

Now I am listeneing to "Teenage Kicks" and realising that there was a lot of good music out there in the late 70s and early 80s that I simply ignored because it was different from the glam and rock music I had listened to as a teenager. I still don't like all punk music - or new wave or alternative or whatever label it had, but I find I ilke a lot of it and, most importantly, I realsie that those kids who liked it at the time were no more than three or four years younger than me which isn't such a big age-gap now as it was then.

Happy New Year!

A week and a day ago I was miserable, tearful, and stressed out over work, the holidays and other elements in my life but today I'm feeling great. We hosted our first New Year Open House for most of the day and it was a great success and enjoyed (I think) by all who came. The whole family really enjoyed it and even the dog enjoyed herself - she was extremely well-behaved too!

Excellent!

Old blanket

I have an old beloved blanket. It was a Christmas present in 1975, it went with me to college and has lived in all the homes I have lived in - sometimes on the bed, sometimes on the couch, sometimes in a closet. When I look at it I remember people and places long gone but fondly remembered.

My husband and I have a good partnership. We own and run a household, we have three much-loved, gorgeous children and share in their upbringing and daily care. On a practical level it works very well. We seldom have major disagreements, although we do bicker constantly. The reason for the bickering is that we are almost opposites in every way and that what is interesting to one is of no interest to the other, so too often conversations are stopped dead in their tracks and we must each find others with whom to share our minds and souls.

So what has this to do with a blanket? For the past two years he has been putting it on his side of the bed and it annoys me that now I am losing past associations with it and thinking of it as his blanket. I won't allow myself to be sad though, because the past is in the past and it shall never be again. It's just a bed-covering after all.

Saddam goodbye

So Saddam Hussein has been executed. Truly I feel sorry that it had to come to this and I'm a little apprehensive about the aftermath. I'm sorry for the people he hurt and killed, I'm sorry for the people who believed in him as a leader and I'm sorry for him because he never actually understood that the things he did were wrong. I don't believe in the death penalty but it's hard to know what else to do with someone so innately evil who is also still idolized by many misguided people.

I often feel grateful that the world isn't relying on me to make big decisions. I often find it easy to see both sides of the coin and can seldom come down on one side or the other. In this case it is clear that the man was evil, but at the same time I ask why. Was he a cruel child? If not, what made him become a cruel man?

What really makes me angry though is that GWB's so-called "war on terrorism" was supposed to find the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and they are still at large and probably laughing up their sleeves. I know the war has rid the world of another dictator, but at what cost? We hear stories of torture, wrongful imprisonment, young men (military) being shot at and blown up and others (insurgents) who blow themselves up just to make a point.

We live in a frightening and dangerous world but it's no more frightening and dangerous than the world we and our parents were born into.

comedy?

Last night we watched "Thank you for Smoking". I had wanted to see this since it was advertised as being in theaters so I was glad when we got it on dvd. What a disappointment. I sat down for a good laugh but did little more than smile once or twice during the whole thing. We agreed that some of the deleted scenes were funnier than what was left in the film and we were both disappointed not to find the whole thing more entertaining. It was "ok". Nothing more. I think some of the deleted scenes were too far from being "pc" and the producers were scared to put them in. However as everyone knows, that is why comedy is funny - often it is the outrageous that makes us laugh.

Back in the 70's when I was a teenager in England, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and the fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin were what made us laugh. things like that were also watched by the next generation of comedy writers and performers such as Rowan Atkinson, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and others. They didn't get laughs because they were pc, they got laughs because they exposed the truth. A bit like Borat really, although Sacha Baron Cohen takes it even further.

A politically correct world isn't a fun place to be if one has to follow the same rules in comedy. You can't mock racists without imitating them. During the second world war it was perfectly acceptable to ridicule Hitler on stage, in public, in polite company, but nowadays it is thought not to be in good taste to put a Hitler impersonator in a show - although it is still done.

a taste of home

This morning I did some good old British baking. Talk about comfort foods: I made 2 dozen mince pies, a spotted dick and a treacle tart. Heart attacks will be served on New Year's Day to the brave and foolhardy who wish to taste these delectable morsels!

Boxing Day.... sort of

I guess I have got used to the American way of treating Christmas as if it's all over at the end of December 25th, but I miss the British Boxing Day - for me it was always a day to relax, play board games have visitors or to go visiting. Sometimes we'd spend the day writing Thank you letters and be happy to get them done so we could enjoy our gifts. I am not feeling morose as I was a couple of days ago. On the contrary, I am enjoying my gifts and am pleased not to be making packed lunches and having to rush out the door to go somewhere.

This year we have decided to invite friends and neighbours over for New Year's Day. There are still a handful of people I would like to invite, but I don't quite seem to get around to it. I don't want to be stressed over it so I plan to get the place cleaned by the end of the week and just think of food and drink over the weekend. For now, though, it's time to organise and archive my photos and documents so that will take me a while.