Apology
Friends and relatives have been telling me that my English, and spelling, in the part 4 and part 5 of ‘Do you realize’ has been a little suspect. Most of my general readers are aware that I will be 90 next year, and am severely handicapped, which tends to make me tired. In consequence, I can be a little forgetful when it comes to checking a post. I put this as a forerunner to my next post which will show how I have young people coming in every day to make sure that I am okay, have not fallen, and to carry out duties that are beyond my capability. These people are not only kind and considerate, but they are also younger than my grandson. My condition has made it impossible for me to drive, and so I am also meeting a vast vumber of taxi drivers of all ages.
Do you realize? Part 8 Prognostication
Prognostication, by its flimsy base, must be seen to be a generality, and in consequence, one must examine each circumstance as to whether it is valid. One person’s experience is not the basis for serious modification, merely one for dialectic consideration.
In the 60s most people would have predicted the social changes that have taken place since then, but I don’t think that they would have expected them to be so deep, so quickly. In talking to young people, and some of the not so young, I find an incredible agreement right across the board, among people’s attitudes at what is happening today, governmentally, socially, and financially. For some time, on this blog, I have been critical in the way the financial system has been conducted, and while it had less efect on me personally, I am very much aware of what it was doing to the young and industry. Consequently I propose to make some prognostications on where I believe these changes are leading.
Marriage
A largenumber of young people that I meet arer living together, often in strange circumstance, because any alternative would be beyond their means. At the end of the last century, the change in the way in which a wedding, and all the peripheral entertainment was couched, rose to an enormously expensive level, and at the same time seemed to be going on rising. I was married 66 years ago, it was a war time wedding, which is described in detail on the blog and is easy to find. We had a service in a church, a meal in a Railway Hotel, and then left by boat and train, for our honeymoon in London. I quote this, because I sincerely believe it is the occasion which is important, not the venue. It is a day for the groom and the bride, and unless they are abnormal, their excitement will be such that the venue has little effect, and they are the people who count, not the relatives and friends, although their contribution more than enhances the proceedings. Young people have said to me that the cost of a girls’ night out, coupled with a stag nights abroad, is bad enough expensively, but to add to that the cost or travelling abroad again for the wedding is a step too far. This was some years ago before the credit crunch.
In the early years of marriage, the fact of being married is a brake on any urge to separate as a result of some strong reaction, which in hindsight, and in a less charged atmosphere, will be seen to be what it was, a reasonable difference of opinion. Young people, I find, are living under very difficult circumstances, in order to be together, which is putting stress on them. In most cases it is as a result of the financial situation. I know a number whose partner, as well as themselves, are both working in shifts, with the result that over some periods of time they see little of one other, except late in the evening or at bedtime. This is no way to live, but these people feel that they have not alternative, because of the financial strictures. I was married in wartime, in 1944, so my home life did not start until 1946. We were in the same situation as the young people of today, and it was not fun. The question then arises as to why we are in this state? It isn’t all that long ago that people had a job for life, but then we were not sending orders for things to be manufactured abroad, or having services positioned abroad