Hi Hasbeen,

Halfway between Bass Hill and Chester Hill - no shops, no service station, just dirt roads, back in the early fifties. After we left, they built a drive-in across the road. That would have been our introduction to civilisation if we'd stayed. It seemed like a mile to Chester Hill school, maybe more. I remember when one kid up that way, dressed as Superman, jumped in front of the train.

One problem for kids these days is that they need far more solid skills than fifty or seventy years ago, certainly with technology, and more resilience. But maybe, for every generation of kids, while some do very well, some fall by the wayside. I was extremely lucky that an encyclopedia salesman came by, dropped off a set with no down payment, and never came back again. Wow, free. They were our TV and games system, all in one. I learnt about three years in one year.

Maybe each generation needs quite different skills from its parents. Certainly parents have to be mindful of that, so as not to raise their kids as if nothing had changed. In that sense, the worst that a parent can do is to raise their kids to follow too closely in their footsteps.

Joe

that makes you 95 years old.
Mr Opinion,
Amazing, an 80 year age gap between the two of you !

Dear Joe,

«So far, there is no such thing as 'too much population', it depends on technology and primarily the production of food.»

I agree and suspect that indeed, if all that matters is food and the like, then new technology could support an even higher population than today.

However, I am not of the view that life is just about food, physical survival and material goods. They are only the means, not an end.

---

Dear Dan,

«Were you as Goldilocks, a wayward child, or as red riding hood, a dedicated child?»

The latter, I presume, because the only reason I went the school, where I was heavily bullied, was to save my parents from jail. I knew it all anyway, what they taught there, like Joe I already read all the encyclopaedias, but I was told that it is the law that if parents fail to send their child to school then they are sent to prison. I loved my parents very much - a little hero I was!

Don't do an arts degree folks, or you could end up with math as bad as the Mr Os.

Just for you MrO, 95 years from 1946 would make today 2041. Perhaps you should buy a calculator rather than use your fingers & toes.

Yuyutsu, I feel sorry for you, I really do.

Yes going to many different schools meant I was bullied too, but once I learned to fight that stopped.

Learning to read, wright & do a bit of math was really interesting, then later physics & a bit of Calculus was fascinating.

If you learned how to play football, & hit a cricket ball you made the school teams, & were an accepted part of the school much more quickly. I don't know what was the most exciting, the day I scored my one & only try for the school team, or the day I found I'd managed 3 honors in my matriculation.

Yes school was really great, about as much fun as landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, racing around Bathurst, or sailing around the Pacific islands. It is a real pity you did not get to enjoy what is a highlight in so many lives.

Interesting to find others who have read an encyclopaedia. I bought a 27 volume set of Britannica in Honiara, [Solomon Islands] from someone returning to England. I read the lot in a couple of years while sailing. A great way to spend a day while wafting along very slowly in the doldrums.

Individual,

What, only eighty years ?

Joe