Years ago when I was a nipper in primary school (back when
we walked three miles to school barefoot, lived in a box in a dam, etc) our
school was based on a farm. Well, I say farm, but it was next to the farm – overlooking
a national road to the front, and a chemical plant to the side. Anyway, so I
have these vivid recollections of our lovely music teacher musically cooing the
words: ‘be glad you’re not going to school in the city, it’s a concrete jungle’.
At the time I thought, ‘ah okay but you see between the chemical plant and the
national road, we’ve our fill of city sights’.
Well, we passed the old schoolhouse on Sunday on our way to
lunch and I saw businesses all the way around it. You can’t even see the entrance
from the national road any more. Much of what was the old playground is now
parking for office drones. I bet if you drive up to the chemical plant and look
down, you’ll not see a single child running around and feel that pang of sweet
irony in your soul: beautiful, happy kids, while to the side of them hazardous pollutants
are being savagely pumped into the atmosphere. Ah, the good old days! They just
don’t make things quite that soviet anymore do they?
The moral of the story is that we should appreciate what we
have when we have it. Because it doesn’t matter how much our reality is
obscured by a chemical plant at the time – it really can get worse.
Great post and I love the moral to this story!! When you get to my age, you tend to reflect more on what was and what you had. I feel very fortunate for my childhood and I am grateful everyday for what I have now. I must have been good in another life to deserve what I have in this one. ;-)
ReplyDeletep.s. I love your blog header! I am not technical and I have completely botched mine up....so frustrating!
Heya Wolfie! I went to shabbyblogs.com for headers etc and it is all for free - you can google tutorials, but be sure to specify for blogger blog and not wordpress. If you have troubles you can email me any time. I must add that I love your new picture and I like the look of your blog anyway. I must also add that I am the least technical person you'd meet, despite my upbringing next to the chemical plant :-) I also hanker for the 'good old days' despite the fact that I am only all of 29, I do see the value of the old-style childhood we had. Today you'd be hard-pressed to find any sort of school near a farm, which is a pity really. Always nice to hear from you Wolfie!
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