h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Generation game - A18559010
Author: sprout - U192568

Something I wrote over the xmas period, imagining family conversations over the post turkey stupor...

Neither of my Grandads were like this one, I should add. But I've come across a few people (including on this site) who might recognise a few things...

I'm not sure about the title.

sprout

Boy, I liked that - and I like the title.

That sort of thing sounds familiar in the US, as well.

Oddly, though, the discussion of comparative technology made me think of the phone conversation I had last night with my dad, who is 80. I'd sent him a model cast-iron stove for Christmas. He grew up eating food cooked on a cast-iron, wood-burning stove.

They got electricity in that part of Tennessee in 1948, after the war. And their outside loos were handmade.

I think you've made a good point - people tend to remember the good things about their generation and forget the bad ones. Sure, a cup of coffee was a nickel, but you might not have a nickel...and only a certain kind of person was welcome in the coffee shop.

Thanks for the read.

Yep.

Actually there are two types of Grandad rant - one is it you have it so easy today, and there I do agree that growing up with poor heating, bad dentistry and so on was probably not much fun.

The other is - your generation today, their behaviour is so bad - and then I think come on, at least we've made some progress on racial and sexual intolerance, and I'm sure there is no more violence now than there was fifty or a hundred years ago.

I'm glad you enjoyed it - there are a lot of very UK specific references, so I was wondering how it would read to someone from outside that background.



sprout

I like this, it reads well. It certainly makes one think of the changes over time, and the advantages and disadvantages of the present. However, I'm not sure when the 'then' is. The history seems a bit dodgy in places. I remember my family not having a TV until I was 10, and I'm definitely of the post war generation. Surely widespread TB and outside loos were earlier? Then perhaps I'm just getting forgetful

I'll bet it depends on where you lived.

I was visiting in Ireland in the late 70s, and they still had outside loos in villages.

And my Mississippi relatives didn't get running water until the late 60s.

Nice work, sprout

Thanks both

I mainly took this as being the 40s and 50s, often perceived as being a bit of a golden age by some in the UK. But I mixed those decades together - poetic licence and all that...



sprout

Neat. I enjoyed that. On behalf of Grandad though - "Which we don't Grandad." Yeah you did - first line. No fair!



Grandma's lines would be a bit different, but I wonder if Grandmas actually see the same golden age for that period?

On this subject, my dad just sent me a link to a website in Alsace, honouring the 95th US Division's liberation of Metz (in which he participated).

Apparently the memory of past events in Europe hasn't died out yet.

Waz

I changed the 'which we don't' to 'wish I hadn't' fairer?

Dmitri

I don't think we should forget - and I think in many ways WWII probably was a life changing period, better or worse, for a lot of people - it's just the idea that 'things' or 'people' were better then that I find hard to swallow.



sprout

I agree wholeheartedly with that. People were people. (It just gets that rosy glow, I think, in retrospect.)

And most of the things were bad - the Depression, WWII, the atomic bomb, etc...

I thought this was lovely, not the war and stuff, the prose.

It made me smile, and think about the changes I've seen.

Thanks Fizzymouse for your kind comments.



sprout

ps - Waz - I agree that Grandma might see things differently, although I know at least one who would subscribe to the theory that things have gone downhill non-stop since Suez...

Sorry, sprout. I did read this some time ago and for some reason didn't comment.

Very, very enjoyable. The phrase 'I wished I hadn't asked' was very funny.

Congratulations sprout - another of your poems picked for the <./>underguide</.> . It's a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable piece to read.

You're familiar with the polishing process and so on, so I'll skip that.

Thank you for this,
UGeds

Well done !

Hi sprout! I've polished up your little gem here, you can see the finished product at A24193992

I added a hyphen to "live-in lover", that's the only change I made.

But I was wondering about the last bit of Grandpa's, should this part
"That much is true -
But I haven't even started yet - I've a list to go through:"
be part of the blockquote, or part of the out take? It has the rhyming pattern of the blockquote, but the content seems more like out take.

I don't do a lot of poetry, so if I'm off base here just let me know.

Thanks

Looks great.

And thanks to the miners for their support - I really appreciate it, especially now when I haven't had time to write for a few months...

sprout