Day of Steam Railway Nostalgia
The best thing about having kids is having the excuse to do things you'd never do otherwise. This weekend we accompanied Felix and his granddad to a local steam enthusiasts open day on the Great Central railway. I don't know which of them was the most excited!
Felix loves Thomas the Tank Engine. First thing in the morning I have to put the DVD on. Last thing at night I read him a Thomas book before tucking him in to bed. In the mean time he plays endlessly with the track and trains (you can see he's clutching on to Thomas in this shot above).
It fascinates me that Felix has a perception of a "choo choo" despite only ever having seen them in animated cartoon form. How on earth does his sense of reality stretch to comprehending a life-size one? As soon as we arrived at Quorn & Woodhouse station he was shouting "choo choo" and not long after the first one rolled in. You should have seen the sense of awe on his slack-jawed face.
The highlight of the day was the appearance of the newly-built (?รบ3 million) A1 Tornado, which I have to admit was an amazing sight. I'm no steam buff, but there is still a little boy in me (and a mechanical engineering degree somewhere) and what boy doesn't like a machine of that size.
Apart from enjoying the "big stuff" aspect of it all I have to admit to being a sucker for nostalgia. Don't we all wish we could have lived at some point in the past? Not long back Karen and I had the "which century would you prefer to live in" conversation. Karen went for early 20th (ala Miss Marple) while I went way back to the 16/17th. I'd be a farmer in the English countryside tending my land with no knowledge of the world's wars, terrorism, politics, the credit crunch, knife crime, motorways, traffic jams etc etc. I know it's a naive concept but I like to day dream of a better world.
When would you prefer to have lived?
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Goodness Jake.
Can't you imagine the ghastliness of living in a16th century pestilence ridden hell-hole, eeking a miserable living from the land and terrified of plague pestilence famine etc, then some Lord of the manor sends his boys over to gather the tithes. - And the local priest puts the fear of God into you every Sunday 'till you kark it at about 40 because your too damned knackered to go any further..Just horrible.
And not a line of code to write because compilers are centuries away.
I'm kind of with Karen on this one...dress for dinner (if you can afford it), age of elegance etc etc.
Me? I'm only alive because I live in the 21st century, but that's another story. And us programmers still have a function in 2008. I've seen the future, and it's all templates and wizards.
Yep, 2008 will do me fine.
I'm with you Jake. Country, farming, and I'd take the 1800's just fine for that, but being that far back I suppose the 1700's wouldn't be measurably different.
There was a great nostalgic segment on public radio this morning with speakers reading corner stone time capsule letters from years ago in Columbus, Ohio. It was enlightening to hear the difference in language usage - much more elegant 80 and 100 years ago. I was also impressed with how forward looking the letters were. Each seemed imbued with hope, wonder, and a surprisingly good grasp of their place in history when compared to what has transpired since the authors penned those letters, stuffed them in tin boxes and entombed them within the stone work.
I think I'd very much like to raise sheep and fruit. Although, to think about how lazy I am, it would be a large an never ending effort to really have livable means from such an arrangement. I suspect I wouldn't know any better though and would be as happy to dream of another time and way of life as I am now. :-)
I'll take the late 1940's, and I would buy up as many 1954-56 chevrolet's as I could afford and store ;-)
You know that I have to throw my two cents worth in. :)
I think it would be cool to live any time where you would know the outcome. Maybe during the Revolution (1700's) where they used primative tools and weapons to forge a new place to live, or the Civil War along with the cowboys (1800's) where at least in the US people had a huge migration through the wilderness, or perhaps when times were simpler (early 1900's) before things became so commercialized.
But for me I'm looking forward to the future. At Matthew 5:5 it says "blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Jesus was quoting from Psalms 37 there where it continues on to say that the righteous would reside upon the earth forever. Since that hasn't happened yet, it must mean that it will take place in the future.
I hope that this didn't come off as preachy, just my thoughts ;)
Amen! Brother!
I know. You're right Nick. My glasses are so rose-tinted I'm almost blind to the obvious down side of life in the past.
It's only a dream for times when modern life gets me down. Over the past few months I've gone for an almost complete news blackout. I've chose not to listen to or watch the news if I can help it. I still have the Sunday papers delivered and then choose what to read. Mostly the non-depressing stuff, so it doesn't take long to get through it all. Same goes for topical shows like Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. Karen likes to listen to it but I try to avoid it. I have to say that life in a news-free zone has had a positive impact on my general outlook.
Back to the point - whether I'd actually actually be willing to swap or not I don't know. Probably not. Despite everything I do love my life and try to never take what I have for granted.
Maybe I'll swap the dream from being the salt-o-earth down-trodden farmer to being the wealthy, gowt-ridden, drink-fuelled land-owner ;o)
You go, Jake - don't loose your sense of wonder, regardless of what the naysayers say.
Overall, I think I like George Carlin the best as Thomas' narrator. Maybe it's the contrast from his "adult history", but he seems to get in to and lose himself in the role.
I can't explain it but I too have a fascination with these steam wonders. Sounds like you had an awesome day!
As to your 16th century wish; you may want to read "The Pillars of the Earth" or "World without end"and re-think that one ;)