Pause for thought

jen; wasn't that woman eloquent; that was one of the bits that made me cry. Paxman reminded me of when he did his family tree programme [Paxman cries]. What was an eye opener was Julian Fellowes talking about Kitchener [his relative??!!]. And the fact that he realised it was a war that needed vast numbers of men. Perhaps, with hindsight no one realised at the time how many would be slaughtered? Although one of the programmes that always stuck in my mind was the Great War [still a ground breaking production] I don't think I've ever realised before just how threatened we felt here at the time. I can't imagine what it was like. Sad to see that the 105 year old lady has since died . My uncle died, and I used to go into the Rememberance Hall in Birmingham whenever I was passing to see if his name was on that days page.

My grandfather married late - in his 40s - and was too old to serve in WW1. My father was in a reserved occupation (making explosives) during WW2 but served as captain of the local Home Guard. We were a very fortunate family having no close relatives injured or killed in either war.

I watched it, Tegan. It looks like it's going to be a very interesting series. Good to see Paxman smile at the woman wno was talking about her uncles.
My mother was an only child and her father was born in 1870. She was born in 1922, so he was 52 when she was born. He was too old to be called up in the first world war, and died just before the second. My grandmother was 38.
My dad's father was born in 1875 and my dad in 1918, so his dad was in his forties. I had never realised this before.

Actually I have always considered them to be MY Beatles

Thank you Grannyknot they were lovely. Rest of you - hands off!!

I watched the Paxman thing Tegan and thought it was great, maybe a bit superficial but really accessible and human.

Did anyone watch Paxman's programme about WW1 last night? The S.O. watched it in silence [unusual cause he usually talks through programmes and we were both close to tears at the end . Because my dad was really old when I was born [50] and my mum was in her late thirties, being the youngest of a large Edwardian/Victorian family I always felt a close link to previous era's. For some reason recently [age?] I've been drawn back to my childhood and teens and feel a need to go back to places from that time; it's as if it's closer to me than the intervening years. Scary.

Oh that clip of George singing Happy to Dance with You (sigh). I have played this many times on youtube in an idle moment. He sings it with such a broad Liverpool accent and those Cuban heels dancing away. I was totally in love with him . When he got married, I couldn't eat my tea and cried all night! I have bored on GN before about my many Beatle escapades in the '60s. I hated it when they went to America. I thought they were going to be stolen from us. Such good times (despite all the crying).

Yes Eloethan the age of actors. It's when they die and I think 'goodness, he or she has died young'..... Then I realise they haven't.

nfk it was that lovely Beatles number "I'm so happy when you dance with me" ... here's another version, a better one actually:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTBivLC9pbA



Such a lovely innocent song.

I just tried to look at the UTube link Grannyknot put on for Kitty and it's blocked! That'll teach me!

He'd still be a perfectly acceptable toy-boy absent

Johnny Depp is 50. I don't know whether it was a shock to him, but it certainly surprised me.

I realised I must be getting old when for the first time the Prime Minister was younger than me...(Tony Blair - although he's only two years younger than me). This latest one is 15 years younger than me!

I know exactly what you mean. What often brings it home to me is reading about the age of actors. Sidney Poitier is 87 for heaven's sake!

There was a fascinating programme on Radio 4 ages and ages ago when they interviewed people in their 70s and 80s about what their grandparents had told them about their lives. The one that stuck in my mind was a chap whose grandfather had been a drummer boy at Waterloo when he was about 12. A canon ball went rolling past where he was standing and he automatically stuck his foot out to stop it. It took his leg off.

My father was born in 1903. His father in 1860 and his grandfather in 1827. He remembered an ancient relative telling him about the occasion of Queen Victoria's coronation which was strong in the memory of his mother. He was taken to see Halley's comet when he was seven and wrote an account if it for our son when he was seven. I think that was about 1986 but I need to check.

DH said recently that the first time he felt old was when he realised that David Cameron wasn't born "when England won the World Cup". ( Very important day in his life.)

Well, he did meet me again for the for the first since we were children that evening.

When you think that our Grandparents were born in the 19th century!

Just for you Kitty

www.youtube.com/watch?v=09wv6Z8Tar4

I remember the Beatles going to the USA and slightly resenting that they weren't happy just to be here (possibly with me )

The Wright Brothers first flight was 1903 and the Apollo moon landing was 1969. These events were 63 years apart; I am 63…

Yes, Soutra – you are right.

For me WWI belongs to history but the Fab Four going to the USA is in my lifetime
It does lend a different perspective to periods of time though.

Yes Soutra, and it also gets me thinking a lot about my two grandfather's who fought in the 1st war, and my paternal gran, whose brother was killed in that war. We did talk, but how I wish we'd talked more about their early lives. Still, I will be eternally grateful to them for their love, gentle approach to life, and wisdom.