Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

Times Past is a monthly prompt challenge that I hope will give us social insights into the way the world has changed between not only generations but also between geographical location. The prompt can be responded to in any form you enjoy – prose, poetry, flash, photographs, sketches or any other form you choose. You may like to use a combination of the two. I will also add a series of questions for those that would like to join in but don’t know where to start.

Heading your response please put what generation you belong to, your country and whether you lived in a rural or city environment at the time of your story.

The second prompt in the series examined what I expected (and found to be true in the small sample submitted) that doing the laundry was women’s work although both Gen X submissions seem to be breaking the mould, both attributing it to their mothers, one pushing the boundaries and the other wanting to do her man’s laundry alone. There were remembrances of grandmothers and various sorts of equipment. Some fascinating remembrances, all worth reading if you haven’t done so already. For the links press here. What I found interesting in these was a very definite difference between the U.K. and the U.S.A. when it came to washing. Those women in the U.K. resisted the washing machine into the sixties whereas their U.S. counterparts embraced not only the washing machine but also the drier. Drying in the northern hemisphere was more difficult than we experienced in the south where predominantly clothes were hung outside. Another unexpected outcome was finding that pegs in the U.K. and Australia, in the U.S. are called clothespins. Thank you everyone that took part.

The Generations that I think may possibly be blogging:

Greatest Generation

G I Generation: 1901 – 1924 Experienced WWII in adulthood.

Silent Generation 1925 – 1945 Experience WWII in childhood

Baby Boomers

Boom Generation/Hippie 1946 -1964 Space Exploration/ first counter culture

Generation X 

Baby Busters 1965 -1980 Experienced Vietnam War/Cold War

MTV or Boomerang Generation 1975 – 1985 Rise of Mass Media/end cold war

Generation Y

Echo Boom/Generation McGuire 1978-1990 Rise of the Information Age/ Internet/War on Terror/Rising Gas and Food Prices

Generation Z

New Silent Generation 1995- 2009 Never experience pre Internet/dot com bubble/ Digital globalisation

Generation Alpha

No sub name as yet but possibly the school or materialistic generation 2010 – These are predicted to study longer and be more concerned with material possessions.

My belief is that our location and the generation into which we were born see very different experiences of growing up as we relook at Times Past. I hope you’ll join in. Put a link to your post and I will add it in my post so that it is easy to read others experiences. Lets get started.

Prompt No 3. Beach Memories. Did you go for holidays to the seaside? What kind of swimming costume did you wear? What activities did you do? Did you slip slop slap from an early age or did you bake yourself to a crisp? Did you eat ice cream after a swim? If so what kind did you normally have or was your favourite. The first time you went to the beach without your parents who did you go with? Any beach memories you’d care to share – I’d love to read them.

© irene waters 2016

These beaches I don’t remember. This one is Coney Island New York and it looks like we were having a picnic. If anyone can fill me in on the bizarre tower structure in the background please do.

© irene waters 2016

Mount St-Michael Cornwall. It looks like I wanted down but my Mum wasn’t going to let me onto the sand.

© irene waters 2016

My brother on the beach at Worthing. I bet this has changed a bit from these days. I imagine there would be a lot more people.

© irene waters 2016

My Father’s family lived in a beachside suburb of Sydney and he grew up swimming like a fish. As a child I loved looking at photos of him on the swim team wearing a costume similar to those my Great-Uncles wore a generation earlier. (pictured in the first photo). We loved the beach. We’d spend part of our Xmas holidays at the seaside often at Ballina and then Avoca when my grandparents bought a house there. We loved to swim. Mum rarely went swimming but my Dad was a good swimmer and ensured we were too. They had trouble getting us out of the ocean as kids and only the shark alarm sounding or the promise of an ice cream made me move towards the beach.

© irene waters 2016

Often, however, as we got older, our beachside holidays would consist of  the other members of my family laying in bed all morning reading their books and eating their Xmas chocolates whilst I annoyed them all, agitating to go to the beach. Books during the day did not hold me, not when there were sand castles to build and surfing to partake of. I pleaded for everyone to arise but even threatening to hang myself moved no-one from their books except my brother, who stirred out of bed to watch. It only gave him something to crow about as my attempt failed because I tied a slip knot in my noose. Luckily, I had not yet read “How to tie knots.”

© irene waters

Even into my forties the surf held a great attraction for me. I didn’t sunbake but I loved to catch a wave.

I wonder what living in different locations will mean for beachside holidays. Perhaps coming from a cold climate some generations wouldn’t have had access to swimming lessons and perhaps the seaside held attractions other than the ocean. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Baby Boomers

city USA – in comments

City South Australia

Clawed

rural and then city U.S.A.

(nf-m) Born Under a Water Sign… (Past-times prompt 3)

city U.K.

Sun, sand, sea, sex… three out of four ain’t bad

seaside town U.K.   rural Australia

https://taswegian57.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/times-past-grainy-memories/

small town U.K

http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdotal/-sand-gold-fame-citrus-my-own-beach-memories

GEN X Baby busters

USA rural

Times Past: Grainy Memories

UK rural

Times Past: Sand in your Pants