'60s Child

I'm a child of the 1960s in that I was born in that decade. Back in the day I used to sneer when I heard the song, 'Born in the '50s' by The Police - that just made them so old.

I was reminded of my 60s status today when I looked at my Last.fm account and saw that my top 10 played artists this week are:

The Kinks
Pet Shop Boys
Suzanne Vega
Lulu
Marianne Faithfull
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Alan Price
Donovan
Alanis Morissette
Michelle Shocked

There's a reason for most of those people being heavily played this week, such as Marianne has a new album out and I've been reading Ray Davies' autobiography, hence The Kinks. But Lulu and Donovan? I suppose the sunny weather demanded some safe, sunny pop songs. The Pet Shop Boys are there largely from repeat playings of their new EP, 'Love Etc' (which is excellent) and then sampling other albums from the last 20-odd years.

I was just thinking the other day how lucky I am to have lived through the events from the '60s onwards and still be here to see a very different world. When I look back I see the world in shades of gray and ancient history. I recall my first teacher being called 'Little Miss Miniskirt' by my Mam since she was small and wore a skirt just above her knee... they went much higher in the years to follow. When my Dad was my age I'd already left home for university and he was well into middle age. I don't feel middle aged at all.

Life experience shapes us and I'm pleased that the times are very different and I'm free to do whatever I want with much broader opportunities than my parents ever had. My Mam always delighted in my travels to far-off places. She went travelling around Europe after the war and into the early '50s, a brave thing for her and her friends to do back then, and she loved getting cards from around India, Africa and the Far East, particularly since her health was deteriorating and she couldn't travel easily. She kept all the cards and the nick-nacks I sent back.

Through me, history stretches back to the 1890s when my grandparents were born. The house I live in was built in the 1890s as well. My grandparents were born into an age with steam trains for distance travel and horse and carts for local travel around the villages in old Durham and Northumberland. And they lived to see the moon landing. The pace of change is rapidly increasing. My nephews were born in the '90s - I wonder what change they'll see and accept as the norm in their lives?

As for me, I like having been born in and lived through the '60s - the things I've seen and done in the last five decades are probably wonders to older generations. I grew up in a world that had change as the norm and I relish that. I wonder if there'll ever be a time when change leaves me behind? I hope not. That would be so dull.