LOSS OF INNOCENCE?

One thing that becomes clear as we watch the gathering financial and ecological storm engulfing the world is that all the developed nations have been living beyond their means. The uncomfortable truth and one that isn't being faced yet, is that we are all going to suffer a fall in disposable income and there is no prospect of this improving for at least ten years and probably longer. We shall have to spend less, cut down on debts and our 'standard of living' will fall.

Don't worry, I'm not going to bend your ears about economics! There could be an up-side to all this, everything is not doom and gloom. There is a big difference between 'standard of living' and Quality of Life. Happiness and satisfaction don't depend on how much we can spend but how we use what we have. All this came to mind this week when I heard some interviews with shoppers in London asking how much money people intended to spend on Christmas Presents for the children. There were some truly astonishing figures, £500 seemed to be regarded as quite normal. I suppose this isn't beyond the bounds of possibility when we are talking about electronic gadgets. Of course everyone can't afford this and the programme gave some statistics which, though I distrust them, sounded reasonable, £168 average per child in 2010 and an increase of almost 65% in the last 15 years. We have seen the power of advertising shift standards, it seems that today a person's worth and happiness depends on their ability to consume and there is little doubt that peer pressure and pester power has spread to the school playground, if they haven't got the latest brand name or mobile phone our children feel inferior.

My mind goes back to the questions I asked about Christmas when I was doing the interviews for the Lancashire Textile Project over thirty years ago. Most of the responses referred to the period from 1900 into the depression of the 1930s and what is quite certain is that for most workers the norm was one present if you were lucky and perhaps some fruit or sweets. Arthur Entwistle's father had a profitable sideline making children's toys out of discarded boxes from the Maypole dairy and branched out into wooden scooters at one time. Ernie Roberts told me that all the kids knew that if they called in at Mr Slater's house on Mitchell Terrace on Christmas Eve they would be given an orange. My own memory as a child in a relatively well-off family in the 1940s is that we got one present and a stocking full of sweets and fruit. Sometimes if we were lucky we got a pair of socks or a scarf as well, hand knitted by my mother, no brand names involved!

What strikes me is that nobody felt deprived. We had no expectations beyond hoping that our letters to Santa had been noted. For the younger ones; in those far off days every house had an open fire and it was the custom before Christmas to write a letter to Father Christmas and your mother or father helped you to set fire to it and watch the draught of the fire take it up the chimney. We were all convinced that this delivery method worked and the letter went straight to the North Pole! After all, the mince pies and whisky we left in the hearth for Santa on Christmas Eve were always eaten the following morning. Looking back I realise that our faith in all this depended on one thing, if we were innocent and wanted to believe it worked! I can't remember when the awful truth dawned on me that the source of the Christmas goodies was a bit nearer to home, probably at about eight or nine years old. I wonder what the learning point is now? I suspect it's much younger.

I can remember the way tension built-up in the week before Christmas Day and lying in bed on Christmas Eve too excited to sleep! Of course we always did but woke early the next morning knowing that by some miracle, the fire would be lit in the front room and there would be presents under the tree. It was pure joy. We were warm, there was plenty to eat, everyone seemed happier and of course we had the day to play with whatever Santa had brought us. One year I got a very large second-hand Meccano set and I don't think I did anything else but make things with it until we went back to school. You could always tell who had got a bike or a scooter, they were out in the road riding round as soon as it came daylight!

My question is are today's children more excited and grateful for their massive piles of presents than we were with our single parcel, or in Ernie's case (They really were poor!) with his orange from Mr Slater? Was a home-made wooden scooter with pram wheels less exciting than an expensive laptop computer? Are we making our children more happy today than they were all those years ago? Is there any way we can step back in time and restore the innocence of the letter going up the chimney and faith in the existence of Santa?

I don't know the answer to this because today's children are bombarded by advertising and expectations artificially raised, we didn't have those pressures. The funny thing is that I suspect that there may be a change coming and it will run parallel to our general experience as disposable incomes fall. We may find that our quality of life is not damaged, indeed in some cases it might be improved by the removal of the temptation to spend. Like us, our children might become used to making the best of what can be afforded. There is at least the possibility that less money will be a learning experience in which we all remember what used to be simple pleasures and delights. Think of walks in the countryside, the re-discovery of the taste of cheap wholesome food cooked at home instead of expensive mass-produced ready-meals or take-aways. Once the children absorb the message that money is tight, could it be that they can be weaned off the enormous piles of presents?

My message this week is that when the credit card bills come in January, sit back and have a quiet think about Loss of Innocence. It might be that we have as much to learn as our children. One thing is certain, if we can cut our expenses we shall automatically feel better and this will benefit the whole family. A fall in disposable income doesn't automatically mean lower quality of life. Indeed, the exact opposite could be true. Think about Ernie running home with his orange.

One pic attached. Caption reads: Decorating the Christmas tree at Hey Farm almost forty years ago. Simple pleasures that don't fade.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk