I have to agree with him on many points. Although not prepared to dismiss my entire childhood experiences as mere fantasy or all faulty memories. His proposed write up about the internet should mention the dangerous inter-dependency we have with it, due to the technical vulnerabilities of the net. Functioning without it is a life skill that these boomers can fall back on, just as someone with good primitive survival skills could better cope with a more serious breakdown of everything than we would.
There is no one 'boomer' experience. I was fortunate to be brought up in a semi-detached house, probably built in the late 1930s. We had mains electricity, water, gas and sanitation. The primary school I attended was within walking distance, most of the route using unpaved 'gullies' between the backs of houses with gardens. The school was only a few years old. As it was on the city boundary there were cows in the field next door. It had extensive grounds with many large oak trees. There were three gates to the grounds, always open except during school holidays. The road traffic outside our house was pretty much milk men, bakers, coal men and laundry men. Only two vehicles parked on the road at night. My engineer father had a car from work, boys would come from miles to see anything new. He made his own TV and put up fluorescent lighting in the kitchen. The main road out of the city had 'rabbit runs' in the verges that we walked or cycled along. There was a big park with swings and slides, a rough field with a brook. This road is now a busy dual-carriageway, the field a pub car park.
In the summer we got sent to our Nana. She lived by the sea in a Victorian terraced house, outside toilet, gas lighting and only cold water. OK for a holiday, not bad in a small town by the sea but move the same house to the inner city, my city's inner city and it was hell. That's why there were the slum clearances of the 1960s.
Did I have it good? Yes. Did I have it bad? Yes. Ice on the insides of windows, milk that had gone off, lots of 'first world' problems! We live in our own times, simple changes have big effects. Could we go back to the past, say when 'everyone' cycled? Well first we would need big factories within a mile of houses, parades of local shops and get those women out of politics and back to the kitchen!
As the old song of the 'boomer' age went 'Que sera sera'.
I rarely disagree with you - and never did as much as here. Life is dangerous. A life worth living even more so. I follow you logic: Even in this horrible safety culture today, still way too many children fall victim to accidents. Who would deny that?! So let's look them up, deny them any experience that is not 100,00% supervised and safe - or even safer: Let's not have children ar all. You'll see: The numbers will improve.
That's the wrong approach, of course. Life is about discovering, adventure, independence, travel, freedom, sport, outdoor activities, challenges... - and all these ad risks.
Besides, your article is way too long. I made it only to the middle. The central idea could be summarized in a few sentences.
But let me also add: For years already I watch every single video of yours, I agree 99% of the time, and I'm grateful for your work. I learned a lot over the years.
A great article I am generation X and I remember that for 3 years in a row hearing that one child at my school had died in a car crash. Although it is good for children to walk to school - that is a big death toll.
I am not sure that this is so bad.
" Some readers may be aware of the dramatic rise in obesity which struck the world in 1998, when the Body Mass Index threshold used to calculate whether a person was overweight was arbitrarily reduced from 27 to 25. "
I have a BMI of 25.3 - I can assure that I do look overweight - maybe for some very muscular people that 26 is not overweight but I think it is not healthy.
(I am not a doctor I am just talking about appearances).
I enjoyed reading your "A 1960s East End Childhood" book. Could not stop laughing when you described a newly built playground, how boring it was and nailed it with "I wouldn't be seen dead there". haha
Boomers had to be better at maths simply to deal with a pound that was worth two 10/- notes, four crowns, eight half-crowns, ten florins, twenty shillings, forty sixpenny bits, eighty thrupenny bits, two hundred and forty pennies, four hundred and eighty ha'pennies or nine hundred and sixty farthings (kind of puts inflation into perspective). Some days we'd walk to school if the weather was decent and wanted to spend the bus fare on sweets (3 miles down country lanes, without footpaths on the narrow bendy bits - that was the same route the busses took). It was survivable.
Also I am pleased to find a place for reasonable comments on this substack. Now perhaps I shall stop bothering Mr. Webb with emails. I am exiled from Youtube as are legions of posters that displeased the algorithms or complainers.
I have to agree with him on many points. Although not prepared to dismiss my entire childhood experiences as mere fantasy or all faulty memories. His proposed write up about the internet should mention the dangerous inter-dependency we have with it, due to the technical vulnerabilities of the net. Functioning without it is a life skill that these boomers can fall back on, just as someone with good primitive survival skills could better cope with a more serious breakdown of everything than we would.
There is no one 'boomer' experience. I was fortunate to be brought up in a semi-detached house, probably built in the late 1930s. We had mains electricity, water, gas and sanitation. The primary school I attended was within walking distance, most of the route using unpaved 'gullies' between the backs of houses with gardens. The school was only a few years old. As it was on the city boundary there were cows in the field next door. It had extensive grounds with many large oak trees. There were three gates to the grounds, always open except during school holidays. The road traffic outside our house was pretty much milk men, bakers, coal men and laundry men. Only two vehicles parked on the road at night. My engineer father had a car from work, boys would come from miles to see anything new. He made his own TV and put up fluorescent lighting in the kitchen. The main road out of the city had 'rabbit runs' in the verges that we walked or cycled along. There was a big park with swings and slides, a rough field with a brook. This road is now a busy dual-carriageway, the field a pub car park.
In the summer we got sent to our Nana. She lived by the sea in a Victorian terraced house, outside toilet, gas lighting and only cold water. OK for a holiday, not bad in a small town by the sea but move the same house to the inner city, my city's inner city and it was hell. That's why there were the slum clearances of the 1960s.
Did I have it good? Yes. Did I have it bad? Yes. Ice on the insides of windows, milk that had gone off, lots of 'first world' problems! We live in our own times, simple changes have big effects. Could we go back to the past, say when 'everyone' cycled? Well first we would need big factories within a mile of houses, parades of local shops and get those women out of politics and back to the kitchen!
As the old song of the 'boomer' age went 'Que sera sera'.
I rarely disagree with you - and never did as much as here. Life is dangerous. A life worth living even more so. I follow you logic: Even in this horrible safety culture today, still way too many children fall victim to accidents. Who would deny that?! So let's look them up, deny them any experience that is not 100,00% supervised and safe - or even safer: Let's not have children ar all. You'll see: The numbers will improve.
That's the wrong approach, of course. Life is about discovering, adventure, independence, travel, freedom, sport, outdoor activities, challenges... - and all these ad risks.
Besides, your article is way too long. I made it only to the middle. The central idea could be summarized in a few sentences.
But let me also add: For years already I watch every single video of yours, I agree 99% of the time, and I'm grateful for your work. I learned a lot over the years.
It is too long, you are right! And it would be a dull world if everybody always agreed with me...
A great article I am generation X and I remember that for 3 years in a row hearing that one child at my school had died in a car crash. Although it is good for children to walk to school - that is a big death toll.
I am not sure that this is so bad.
" Some readers may be aware of the dramatic rise in obesity which struck the world in 1998, when the Body Mass Index threshold used to calculate whether a person was overweight was arbitrarily reduced from 27 to 25. "
I have a BMI of 25.3 - I can assure that I do look overweight - maybe for some very muscular people that 26 is not overweight but I think it is not healthy.
(I am not a doctor I am just talking about appearances).
Hello Mr Webb,
I enjoyed reading your "A 1960s East End Childhood" book. Could not stop laughing when you described a newly built playground, how boring it was and nailed it with "I wouldn't be seen dead there". haha
I’m Gen X and wouldn’t trade places with Zoomers or Millennials though Simon is correct about over idealizing one’s youth.
Boomers had to be better at maths simply to deal with a pound that was worth two 10/- notes, four crowns, eight half-crowns, ten florins, twenty shillings, forty sixpenny bits, eighty thrupenny bits, two hundred and forty pennies, four hundred and eighty ha'pennies or nine hundred and sixty farthings (kind of puts inflation into perspective). Some days we'd walk to school if the weather was decent and wanted to spend the bus fare on sweets (3 miles down country lanes, without footpaths on the narrow bendy bits - that was the same route the busses took). It was survivable.
I can still switch seamlessly into old money! I sometimes remark to my wife that something costs thirty bob, for example, which is a scandal.
Also I am pleased to find a place for reasonable comments on this substack. Now perhaps I shall stop bothering Mr. Webb with emails. I am exiled from Youtube as are legions of posters that displeased the algorithms or complainers.
Interesting and illuminating!