One of the advantages of increasing years is the ability to look back and remember earlier days when the sun was always shining and one had few, if any, worries about things like mortgages or about getting another job or even a secondary job if you wanted it.

We can’t blame unwanted changes on the wonderful technology we have today, well not entirely, after all we created it, and now we are a bit pushed keeping up with it to take advantage of what it offers by way of labour saving devices and especially the computer and the communication devices making it possible to reach across the globe.

I remember learning to roller skate on a pair of second hand skates, and at an earlier stage it was a scooter that had to be mastered. It was fun and we got plenty of fresh air. As the years went by new and wonderful inventions saw the light of day.  Fashions changed, who could forget the “New Look’  in the late forties and in the swinging 1960s the ‘Mini’ and the ‘hot pants’, it was a great decade. There was also the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and the Beatles conquering the USA followed by the Rolling Stones, Neil Armstrong’s giant step for mankind and the funeral of Churchill.

Then it was the time of the labour saving devices and black and white TV, you were watching Zorro on the box and Formica furniture had become fashionable.

But things have changed since then. Chances are that you aren’t playing 78s on your turntable any more, but you may remember the portable Grammophone for the 45s!

You don’t have to adjust the rabbit ears to get a decent TV signal anymore now we have all gone digital.

I just loved the Desert Boots, wore them out, so comfortable and good looking. By then it was time to take an interest in two and four-wheeler transport; who can forget the Isetta and similar 3 wheelers with their motorcycle engines and room for two. And if you were in the UK the Reliant might have been your car of choice and was in fact manufactured right up to 2002.

The Milkbar and the jukebox was a gathering place and later the Coffee bar with soft lighting became the meeting place for the younger generation to listen to the latest pop and chewing gum.

Those days have passed, we have grown up and can look back and wonder what the next generation will fondly remember. They won’t have to bother with tangled phone cords, indeed they can now walk around talking or messaging, taking photos and transmitting them immediately, play games on their tablets or games machines, watch numerous channel of colour TV and wonder how it could be otherwise.

And we created all that?

We did split the atom, created apocalyptic weapons, sent men into space, built modern highway systems, and as we entered the Digital Age we began microwaving our dinners and using all manner of personal electric home appliances, started regularly jetting around the country on commercial airlines, switched from radio to television-dominated media, and moved to the suburbs to raise families in spacious, modern splendor unknown to the generations that came before.

Now we have a revolution in how we communicate, access, use, and share information, and even as we get older we can’t all together avoid learning how to make use of computers or cell phones if we want a share in the advantages these devices offers, but what a marvellous 50 plus years to look back on, and one wonders what wondrous inventions our children can look back on in due course?