Young people have always taken for granted the scientific and technological advances that their parents marvel at and today's teenagers - born, I am certain, with a mobile phone clamped to one ear - cannot remember a time when people did not have portable telephones.
When men landed on the moon in 1969 I, whilst conceding that this was, indeed, a momentous event, did not exclaim, like my parents, great aunt and grandfather, that I had never expected to live to see the day but wondered, with all the coolness of my generation, why no one had walked on the moon before.
I was reminded of all this yesterday whilst helping a class of fouteen-year-olds with our school's January quiz: in one question, I had referred to the winter of 1205, when the Thames froze over and wine which had turned to ice was sold by weight. Why, asked one of my charges -a sommelier-to-be, no doubt - hadn't people just kept the wine at the correct temperature in refrigerators? I replied that this might have been rather difficult in the year 1205.
10 comments:
See? Even in Sicily teenagers have forgotten how their ancestors kept things cool.
When we die, Pat, nobody will remember anything since even school books will become electronic.
Hope you're enjoying a warmer winter than your compatriots.
Not just children but adults too often get the chronology mixed up. It's amusing though.
Good one! Seriously though it is amazing to think how fast things have progressed over the last century. Take Patrick Moore: he knew both Orville Wright and Neil Armstrong!
I sell vintage watches at antique shows and young men in particular really like them...very often though I have to demonstrate how to wind them up. I love your posts from sunny Sicily...I'm reading "The Leopard" right now.
I remember the Olden Days.
We had a "valve" television you had to switch on the minute you came in, to have it ready for Coronation Street (EastEnders wasn't out then). And the buttons stood out like cigarettes. Good job there weren't any more than 4 channels. Only 4 buttons!
PS Woof woof! Hi Simi!!
PPS Ignore me going crazy chez moi. What on earth I was going on about this morning I have no idea. I'm very tired now.
Re fridges, a good house, a well-built house in my opinion needs NO aircon no matter how hot it might be and should have a cool area ie a pantry. So you don't need refrigeration. What on earth we're all going to do when this world falls apart I've no idea...(!)
Hi, Rosaria. You are right. I don't want to live in a world without proper books. Hi,James. Yes, they do.
Hi, jams. Good old Patrick Moore! Thanks, Marian. I'll be interested to know what you think of "The Leopard".
This made me smile :-)
Yes, hard for them to imagine life without fridges and mobile phones.
Hi, Gleds. Oh, I would love a pantry! Don't quite know what we would do without aircon here though of course people managed not so long ago. But life was less stressful then. I remember a TV like that and I remember the first episode of "Coronation Street"! Hard to believe how it shocked everyone now. You have a right to write what you like on your own blog! Glad you are feeling calmer.
Glad you had a laugh, Cherie. Hi, Ellee. I agree.
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