News is a sign that you're getting old

When our daughter came home and told us she was learning about John Lennon in history I saw my husband’s face wince.

He remembers seeing the Beatles before they were famous during the lunch hour performances in the Cavern, and he reported on John and Yoko’s “Sleep-in” protest. This wasn’t history but something that happened just a few years ago.

It was the same for me watching Ashes-to-Ashes on TV, set in the 80s. It didn’t seem old fashioned, but normal.

Our daughter was laughing at how we could remember things from history, like the miners strike, the Falklands war and Margaret Thatcher when references were made in the show.

But it was a shock to her that the Brownies that come to the pack I help out with would think her old because she can remember 9/11, and going to primary school with the bodies of sheep and cattle piled up when foot and mouth hit this area.

She stopped laughing when I told here all these things had happened before they were born.
It seemed to put everyone in their timeline.

Then she just said: “And I will tell my children how I watched the first television debates for a General Election”. Exactly, we said.

News may be all about today, but it certainly puts us in our historic place tomorrow.