Smoking # things we used to do!
Oh boy did we smoke! I have been watching the Crown on Netflix which is compulsive viewing for baby boomers. One of my first memories was the coronation and watching it on someone else’s television as we did not have one. But it was somewhat shocking to see the amount of smoking that went on then — the royal family smoking in bed, as soon as they got out of bed, while people dressed them, (how weird is that, someone helping you into your boxers when you are 25 — I wonder if that still happens). They smoked all through breakfast and King George was dying of lung cancer.
I used to sit in an office opposite a chain smoker and over the years such people have been pushed outside into the rain, across the car park — they can’t even go to a pub and light up. For years there were people on drips at hospital doors having a fag. We would never have believed it in the 1970s — smoking was a right. The smoking only carriages on trains and smoking rooms in the workplace became unbearable even for smokers. Gradually they were axed. Smokers are made to feel like pariahs and I have known some flee to other parts of the world where they can smoke in peace.
We used to get married. Lots of people still do of course but there is no stigma to not getting married and the words husband or wife have been largely substituted by partner. Interestingly many gay couples are very keen to get married and often refer to the other as husband and wife rather than partner. What is that about. Makes it pretty clear I suppose if a woman has a wife and a man has a husband that you are not talking about a business partner. A shotgun wedding is a thing of the past. I remember my mother saying when a friend got married, somewhat hastily, looking rather plump. ‘I hope it is not one of those shotgun things’. (It was). Even royalty try it out before tying the knot. But I don’t think we would now say Harry and Megan (Harkles as I believe they are known) are ‘living in sin’.
We used to have dinner parties. The days of woman pouring over recipes of prawn cocktail followed by coronation chicken and pavlova or black forest gateaux seem to be at an end as the young are all too busy. We agonised about who to put with whom and steered conversations away from politics and religion — now there is usually an all out row about Brexit.
We used to drink water from a tap. Bottled water was always a mystery to me Brilliant marketing — selling something that you can get for free. You may think it tastes better but the pretty picture and the words Highland Spring may be playing psychological games with your mind. You might as well sell boxes of fresh air. Someone in China where the air is so polluted might think of that.
Our ageing tennis four distains the obligatory gulp of water as we change ends unless the temperature is soaring but the young do not seem able to play more than 4 points without a gulp of water. I once interviewed a young person for a job and she came in clutching her bottle of water and gulped it throughout — I thought we can’t have her — she would always be in the loo.
There is a bit of a kickback though, now they have discovered floating bits of plastic in these bottles being ingested by all the water addicts. Good argument to have to those who say ‘ you never know what might be in tap water’.
We used to walk to places. If you live in the country these days you probably have acquired ‘the country stone’. Ironically it is those in London who have forsaken the car and at least have to walk to the tube whereas us country bumpkins…..two steps and you are in your range rover………or golf in my case.
We no longer use words like sitting and standing. Even the erudite Fiona Bruce (newscaster) and the Times newspaper say ‘He was sat’ as opposed to sitting. My children groan and tell me language evolves. Someone somewhere probably moaned when we stopped say Thou and Thee. But it still grates as does the word ‘like’ popping up everywhere. We used to say um or ‘you know’ to fill in the gap, but ‘like’ seems to be in every sentence. I had to give a speech recently and was mortified by the number of times I said ‘well….anyway’. So perhaps I can’t talk
We used to write letters ……well we could write. I sometimes wonder about the younger generations whether they will totally lose that skill as everything is on a keyboard and wielding a pen is becoming increasingly alien. Fountain pens — who uses those? — Jacob Rees-Mogg I’ll bet.
