I thought I’d write about differences between the time when I was five years old – 1973 – and now – 2010. What does my son have that I don’t have? What did I have then that my son doesn’t have now?
In 1973, I grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan. My mother was still alive (she died in 1976). The Riders were one of the best teams in the CFL and weren’t going to experience the horror that would be an eleven-year playoff drought.
My son’s mother is alive and he’s living with her. I guess that’s a different right there – my parents were still together when I was five. The Riders are once again one of the best teams in the CFL and lost a field goal on the final play of the Grey Cup in 2009, just like the Riders did in 1972.
No cell phones back then. I was living in a small house and remember having one black phone with a rotary dial. We had two channels – Yorkton and Yorkton. One was CKOS (CBC) and the other was CICC (CTV); they came over the air.
Damien lives in a world of cell phones and a multi-channel cable universe. He shares a place with his mother and the phone is probably a cordless model. Damien lives in a much larger town than I did.
Growing up in my hometown, we never locked the doors to our house or vehicles. We’d go downtown, get out and leave the doors on the car unlocked. That changed in the 1980s.
Damien’s world has locking your doors being a fact of life, which is kind of sad.
No VCRs, DVDs, LCD TVs. No HDTV. No video games for me then. No personal computers. We spent a lot of time outdoors playing. We could be gone for a long time and our parents wouldn’t worry. Of course, I had brothers and sisters that would take care of me.
Damien now has a lot of nice stuff, but I worry about him now. Is he okay with his mother? Is he okay at school? Damien has no siblings with whom to play.
We both live in a world that has wars – there have been very few years in the history of mankind that involved total peace. We both have diseases, but some of the diseases we have now are more deadly. I would take penicillin when I was a kid; for my most recent sickness, I had to take something a bit more powerful.
From Damien’s viewpoint, I’m sure the world is wonderful. He will remember the days when the sky was blue, like I did at that age. The warmth of the sun against his face. No real worries (even though he wishes his mom and dad were back together – I’ve already told him that, unfortunately, that won’t be happening). He laughs with gusto and plays excitedly. New things are wonderful and enthralling.
Memories of the time he spent with his mother and father – unfortunately, my memories of my mother are very limited from that time; I remember one magical moment when I carried a chair out into the yard during Homestead Days Weekend – I sat in the chair and my mom took my picture. I remember her leaning forward as she took the picture. I smiled happily. That picture is one of my favourites – I’ll have to get it scanned. I have a few other memories of my mother, but not many. I don’t remember my dad very much at all until after my mom died.
I wonder what Damien will think when he’s my age, or when his son is five years old? Will he have my worries? I’m hopeful that he will have the same pride for his son as I do for him.
Jim Wolf is a member of the Clique Canada team and sometimes misses the good old days.
