Now I'm Sixty Three

By forest_for_ever

Tue, 11 Jun 2019
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5 comments
 

 

Now I’m Sixty Three

 

There are but a few weeks before I can sing ‘now I’m sixty four’.  I have sung the Beatles version ever since it first came out in nineteen sixty seven.  Now I am about to find out if people will still need me or feed me…

Ever since my brain was first able to record and recall memories (being around two and a half when I trapped my ankle between crank and frame on my tricycle) I have been recording history as it happened.

The world was for me at least very different in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties. Things such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the building of the Iron Curtain passed a small boy like me by and media coverage was by modern standards crude as well as limited.

So a lot of the vast changes took place as I lived amongst them only to go back as a historian to see how they shaped the world in which I now live.  The most striking difference is that I had time to grow up and become me; to live in my world and grow accordingly; to prepare for whatever the next step would be.  I have written before about the pressure on young people today from all quarters and it is no surprise that I see the urgent need for counsellors in secondary education (not that the bean counters at Westminster will pay for them) as some begin to suffer under the pace and pressure of being a teenager.

I do remember Kennedy being shot; the first Dr Who Episode; the Vietnam War; Flower Power; listing to Tony Blackburn on Radio Caroline and a world around me changing with ever increasing pace.  Computers as big as ten Albert Halls could not do what my Android mobile can do and yet Man walked on the Moon with less support.  I was driving a passenger train near Bedford in the Seventies when Brian Trubshaw flew overhead with Concorde…now it is a museum piece!

Now as we jostle, squabble, argue and struggle for room on the planet we should rewrite some of the lines of McCartney’s lyrics ‘will you still be here when your sixty four….’  Maybe we CAN seize the day and human kind will have spread out to explore God’s creation of an awesome Universe…I hope so.

Certificate U
Non-fiction
In the Late Summer of Life
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Graham,

you sum up my thoughts completely and I went through a lot of what you did in the 50s and 60s, although I had no idea about Kennedy being shot, I suppose it was because I came from a small village and I wasn't really aware of what was going on in the rest of the world, 

By the way, I'm 64 at the moment going on 65 and don't feel any different to be honest, but yes I am needed and so will you be.

Hope you have a good birthday whatever it brings and keep on enjoying the writing.

Jenny.

 

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Like Jenny, I'm galloping towards 65.  My kids wouldn't stop singing the Beatles song to me/at me on my birthday last year!  

I certainly don't envy the kids of today the pressures they experience, but I do think that life is better for many people these days.  We were born into a world where male homosexuality was illegal, people could put signs saying 'No Blacks' on rooms to let, and if you were a woman or man suffering from domestic violence, there was little or no support.  I wish we had taken environmental issues more seriously then, and I wish more older people would listen to the young environmental campaigners now.  

Some marvellous times though.  I still remember peering at a little black and white telly and trying to make out what was going on as Armstrong took his one small step!  And I'm glad I grew up with the music that I did. 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

An excellent point well made.  In many ways things are a lot better, but the choices can be confusing and guidance is needed now more than any time before.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

64, Graham? A mere stripling. I have a 20 years advantage - if we can call it that - over you and I lived through the same events as you and more. Among many things I too recall Concorde flying low over my house in Essex on its maiden voyage. All water under the bridge now, so let's looking forwards to a happy future.

Happy birthday, young man.

Best wishes, Luigi. 

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

Ahhhh! Essex land of my birth (Great Baddow nr Chelmsford to be precise) I just about covered all of the countryside as a boy on a bike.....mostly houses now!  Thank you