Eddie “My generation baby…..”
examples of a society which has become disparate and anxious.
Do you remember that? W W
ERE YOU YOUNG and aspiring when The Who were telling us that “People try to put us down”, The Beatles needed “Help” and
The Rolling Stones were a tad frustrated, at their lack of “Satisfaction”? I mention this only that, as a baby boomer, I think I
am qualified to comment about those 1960s, which were an era of extraordinary social change. Plenty of far more erudite folk than I have written about this extraordinary period of time when everything seemed new, exciting and optimistic. Music, the arts and fashion suddenly began to influence almost every aspect of daily life. The young generation drove us forward to a world where there appeared to be no limit to opportunity and success. As Bob Dylan told us, “The times they are a changing”. So, what happened? There has certainly been plenty
of change but perhaps we have, these days, put a little too much emphasis on youth culture, self-worth and material wealth. Certainly today, on the face of it, there is much to
celebrate in our everyday lives. Technology has certainly improved the lot of the elderly and the infirm. Indeed everyone, in our comfy first world at least, benefits from the internet, social media and access to inexpensive food from a huge number of supermarkets. Clothes are now so cheap that just about all of us, if we choose, have a wardrobe which would have been the envy of our parent`s generation, particularly in the period after World War 2 and into the 1950s. In truth, however, there is great unrest everywhere.
We have violence at previously unknown levels on our streets. Food banks are commonplace, many hundreds are sleeping on the street and there are untold further
30 We hear regularly of undoubted hardships despite
the manifold benefits of modern technology. Seeking to find some optimism, I found myself
thinking about my parent`s and grandparent`s generations. On reflection they, through necessity, displayed great fortitude and inventiveness on a regular basis. I suggest that it is well worth looking back at their ability to make the most of very little. Let me draw a few interesting comparisons. I read of
young ladies (how is that for an ageist description?) who buy clothes from the high street which they wear just once and then discard. This is simply to keep abreast of fast changing fashion. It is also often funded by use of an innocuous square piece of plastic known as a credit card! Those grandparents would waste nothing. A chap`s
best suit would last for decades. My grandmother was frugal in the extreme. When some item of clothing finally reached the end of it`s life, she would even cut off
Eddie Peacock has worked in the mobility industry for “rather a long time”. He enjoyed a challenging career having started by selling wheelchairs, scooters and stairlifts for Sunrise Medical, eventually working his way to the position of UK sales manager. After a period as a self-employed consultant he was invited to manage
movingpeople.net, now Handicare Ltd,
Ability Needs Magazine
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