I WONDER how many seniors, getting to the pointy end of their life here on earth, start to think about the years that have gone by.
The missed opportunities, things we should have done, things we shouldn’t have, and wonder what our life would have been like if we had followed another direction.
I think that many of us would be pleased with our lives as they have been given to us.
Even with all its ups and downs.
“There is always someone worse off”, is a popular saying, but true and when you look at the plight of some people overseas and indeed Australia, one must be thankful for our carefree way of life.
I was thinking how much school was different back in the 1940’s and 50’s and the opportunities that kids have today.
The internet now is up front in their daily lives, while schools now has so many avenues of learning that can see them study in whatever field of interest, they desire with choices in the workforce never ending.
But thinking of the simple pleasures that we enjoyed at primary school in NSW, it doesn’t seem so bad.
There were things that happened in my time that were just so different, simple, and looking back so old fashioned, that children today would laugh.
The kids in my day looked forward to receiving the occasional medal or bird guild badge depicting some event or other to do with the State or Commonwealth.
Due to Polio being around in those days, chest x-rays and health checkups were a feature during those early years in primary school, with all the school kids lining up to be checked over by a nurse or doctor.
There were field trips to the headmaster’s house where bees were kept and once, an outing to a large printing works to see how the daily newspaper was produced.
But who could forget the small bottles of milk, supplied by the government.
Great, but delivered at 9am and left in their crates under a tree till 10am in the hot summer sun.
In the classroom we had up to 40 kids, two each to a wooden desk with ink wells and scratchy pens.
Playing sport was popular and Friday afternoon was down to the local swimming pool and beach where in the early days we were taught to swim and afterwards enjoyed a refreshing bottle of green “GI”.
It was a different era. A different time. Trust your memories are as happy as mine and maybe a little more accurate.
