According to Philip Larkin's poem he suggests that 'sexual intercourse' began in 1963 and that fell mid-way between the lifting of the ban on Lady Chatterley's Lover - and the very first LP brought out by the Beatles (late 1963.) All I can say to his first suggestion is 'actions speak louder than words' and had he been right the human race would have died out long before that date was reached. He was of course speaking of the introduction of the Birth Control pill.
My 'best' time (as Robert Herrick suggests in his poetic advice to virgins) is 'that time of life which is the best, when youth and blood are warmer'.
This train of thought has been brought about by the fact that it is Glastonbury week-end - and shock horror - Glastonbury has swept Monty Don and Gardener's World completely off BBC2 tonight - instead it is wall-to-wall Glasto! The first Glasto was in 1970. It cost £1 to go in and that included free milk from the farm. 1500 attended.
So we can equate all these things - well I can. In1960 I was late twenties, married with a young son. All this seems to have passed me by. I never took 'the pill'; I never listened to 'pop' music (played lots of classical music on my piano but rarely listened to anything else); did read Lady Chat but then didn't everybody? It was said that if you bought a second-hand copy it would fall open at the 'offending' page.
I looked at Breakfast television this morning - 200,000 tickets sold for Glasto this year and another 63,000 kept back for staff and performers. Cost of a ticket - £335 plus £5 booking fee and the queue for showers this morning was about half a mile long (teenagers are not scruffy if that is proof).
I sat here thinking that a whole chunk of 'modern' life had completely passed me by. But then, reading the list of performers over the years I have come to the conclusion that this is not the case - it is the reverse - I have passed it by.
Look at some of the 'oldest' performers - Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir Paul McCartney and this year Sir Elton John - none of them are Spring Chickens are they?
And looking at the Shower Queue this morning quite a lot of them looked to be already drawing their Old Age Pension.
No, I have to face facts. It is a case of 'horses for courses' where pop is concerned. I can't turn the clock back and tramp around Glastonbury in my wellies with my camping gear on my back. I feel another poetic quote coming on. It is all a case of Robert Frost's 'road not taken'. I turned off the road a very long time ago and went down the Schubert, Beethoven and -later on- Monteverdi road and there's no going back at 90!
I might try a snatch of BBC2 tonight but I am pretty sure I would rather be looking at Monty among the ox-eye daisies.
.JPG)
26 comments:
I see that Monty Don is on at 8pm on BBC 4 followed by Simon Reeve at 8.30, another of your favourites. There is some kind of garden thing on BBC2 at 7pm for half an hour and at 6.30 a railway journey so a bit of viewing for you. Music and interests are related a bit to when you were born and a bit to who you mixed with I guess. My mother was always pretty much up with pop music all her life and had a good record collection and favourite tapes in the car.
Gardeners' World was shown last night instead. You should be able to watch it on iPlayer.
As the veg artist said, Gardeners World was on BBC2 last night, does the Times not have a TV page.
I agree with Philip Larkin's comment - sex really did start in the early 60's, the Pill made both sexes equal and boy did we enjoy the sex, and the pop music that went with it - heady days indeed.
I was born in the 50s but seem to have missed out on all the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. Can't be bothered to catch up now.
Thanks for the tip Rachel.
Having read in our tv magazine that Glastonbury has taken over the BBC, I recorded yesterday's Gardeners World and shall watch it at the right time tonight with a glass of white wine in my hand. Although I have now reached 70 I like a nice quiet life with my OH, gardening, reading, listening to music, playing with my granddaughter and going on holiday in the UK. Off to Cornwall soon. Have a great weekend.
Your mention of the shower queue brought back memories. In Canada girls can join Boy Scouts at the age of 14. I packed off my daughter to a National Scout Jamboree Thousands of boys and perhaps a 100 girls. The girls were billeted at a psychiatric hospital, camped in the grounds but used the hospital bathrooms. The boys were all down the hill coping with latrines. Each night boys would climb the hill, not for the girls but to beg them to let them into the pristine bathrooms.
I said to my daughter this afternoon as we sat sipping tea and wilting in the humidity: I'm so glad I am not at Glastonbury. I don't think I would have wanted to go when it first started. I am horrified at the price for the tickets, but I daresay it goes toward the cost of the monumental amount of clearing up that has to be done each time.
Gardeners World was last night with Adam and he was very very good.
Very much enjoying this post and comments.
I was about 17 when Lady Chatterley's Lover was taken off the banned book list in Australia. I remember seeing the big newsagent notice on the street on the way to business college, so bought the book and smuggled it home.
I was astounded how good the book was, and how much I enjoyed D.H. Lawrence as a writer. I had expected something smutty, but gained respect for his writing and insight into human nature evident in Sons and Lovers also. Hopefully the experience introduced others, like me, to get to know some very clever writers, but then that could be wishful thinking. - Pam.
The 60's brought much change for women. The Rock-n-Roll era was exciting and fans were devoted. Today, in the US, Taylor Swift (TS) is all the rage and tickets to attend her concerts are also outrageously costly. TS is going on tour and is said to be in the UK soon. TS has talent but she is definitely not my favorite performer.
I don't think that it's quite that simple that we plot and control our own lives. Too many things happen that we have no control over. some of us are satisfied to go with the flow.
I think that Red is right, to a degree, but I suppose that if I look at it realistically, I am a someone who has made her peace with how life has played out. It just is what it is. I think that you've had a happy and blessed life. I've been lucky as well.
I missed most of tbe sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll too. I was born in 1951, married in '68 and commenced having babies. Never did drugs, not even pot, never took the pill, never went to wild parties or concerts. I guess I did drop out, in a way, when we fled northern Virginia for the seclusion of the WV hills. I can't say I plotted out my life though. It has had some odd twists and turns, but here I still am in my beloved hills.
I had no idea that Glasto tickets cost that much!!! I've only been to one Rock Festival, and that was in France in the late 70's. I would have preferred to go to a good restaurant.
I reckon a lot of people go to Glastonbury just to be able to say they've been!
Controversial as always Pat. I would have quibbled that sex started in the 1960s - I mean how did all those 60s kids get here? It was just easier to talk about it and the pill freed sex up somewhat.
Was the Woodstock Festival the precursor to Glastonbury, did the Green movement start with this particular movement in history or was it all down to a sea change in thinking. So much more to add to the 60s. The Vietnam War protest, perhaps young people were more aware of what was happening.
Interesting that you never took the pill yet had only one child. You must have had some kind of birth control and no accidents.
"controversial as ever Pat" - somehow I doubt that controversial and Pat are two words that have ever gone together throughout her life. She appears to have lived a very conventional life, with few if any, diversions into areas that might shock.
Well perhaps you are right Derek, but the Times has a lot to answer for;)
My parents played all sorts of music at home, from Bill Haley to the Beatles, Glenn Miller to Abba, Bach to Haydn, Mozart to Gershwin. We had a wide choice and liked different types of music at different times and occasions.
In the 1980s (my teenage years), my sister and I would have loved to go to more pop concerts but did not have enough money to go to more than a few, and festivals with huge crowds, dirty toilets and heaps of rubbish never appealed to me.
As for the pill and sex, I was a late starter and married the man who was my ‚first‘. We divorced 10 years later, and sadly, my second marriage ended with my husband‘s sudden death. Children were never part of what I wanted and expected from life. Now, at 55, I wish to stay with O.K for the rest of our lives - married or not.
I agree partially Derek, but would suggest that Pat's life has been more unconventional than conventional with no popular music in the 1960s and 70s. In fact her life sounds nun-like in comparison to my life.
What a brilliant post Pat, and spot on as usual.
Vix one of our fellow long-term bloggers is currently at Glastonbury with her vintage clothing tent and I'm sure she's enjoying the music every night. But like you I missed Gardener's World this week, I shall have to go and find it on iPlayer.
Rachel - there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream to quote an old saying.
Nun-like is not and never was in my vocabulary. Yes I think my life has been unconventional in many ways but now |I live alone I have so many memories to look back on, so many paintings connected to my friendships (and first marriage) closely conected to the art world and the world of early music and so many lifelong friends still in contact to make my life a full one in my old age. My philosophy has always been - we only have one life so live it to the full. As for only having one child - that is what we decided very early on in our relationship. My first husband was one of twelve!! Only one child yes but plenty of fun!
You might remember that I went to the first Glastonbury at Worthy Farm in 1972. Everything was free: entrance, food - even drugs if you knew who to ask - but I hated it and went home as soon as I could. I suppose I just don't like big parties.
I guess it all depends on how we view the meaning of conventional and unconventional.I guess I could of left school, had just the one girlfriend and married her, started a family, went to church, never took drugs, loved classical music, didn't grow my hair long, didn't like the pop songs - that was the classical way of living as the 60's started and what I would call conventional. I did the opposite of all those things and was therefore unconventional at the time. As for Pat being called nun-like, I guess she would of been referred to as like that during my youth.
Post a Comment