A time to remember

Day 55

Yesterday was Rememberance Sunday, something that gets very overshadowed by that other 'remember, remember' on the fifth. When I was a child, the last great war was still very much in people's memories.

My parents had been brought up through evacuation and rationing, make-do-and-mend and grow-your-own. It informed much of who they were as individuals, and therefore, much of what they were like as parents. They would buy a Mars bar on very rare occasions and it was split five ways, each of us hoping for the extra-chocolatey end-piece, and savouring it slowly.

String was hoarded, christmas presents carefully unwrapped and the paper folded neatly for next year, jam jars were scraped until it felt like you were eating the glass, and socks were darned when they ran to holes. Does anybody know how to darn any more? Do sewing kits still contain those wonderfully tactile, brown, wooden mushrooms? A pity if they don't.

Every autumn, the dropped apples were de-bruised and stewed, while the hedgerows were religiously cleared of rose-hips and blackberries. Jumble sales supplied our clothes, very few things were wasted, leftovers were made into other meals, and each winter we relied heavily on hot water bottles and warm brushed-cotton sheets, as the bedrooms were invariably unheated.

My Uncle lost a leg flying fighter planes in the Air Force. He was treated not as disabled, but as a hero. Films were still made celebrating the courage of 'the Few'. As a child I had no idea who they were, but I knew one spoke of them in terms of distinct reverence. I know a little better as an adult and I am truly grateful - whatever my pacifist beliefs on the subject of war are - to all those who fought for me, and the generations that will come after me.

I think it's good to remember a time when - for all those years - selflessness and sacrifice were a part of every day life. When people knew how lucky they were to be alive. When having the latest handbag (at the cost of a small family car) "because you're worth it" would have been recognised as the nonsense that it truly is.

I'm glad that I can live a more comforable life now. That I hoard postmans red elastic bands because I can, not because I must. That apart from one day a year I can forget - they made my life safe enough to take it for granted. So today I shan't, and I say thank you, thank you, thank you.