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Disgusted. Seamer
Young people nowadays have no morals, sense of decorum, decency, manners, nor anything else remotely connected with civilised behaviour. Or so I am led to believe by several grumpy grannies (and granddads). Unfortunately for them, my sense of recall is better than theirs. Remember the sixties, when the older generation were totally shocked by the sight of young women, with legs up to the armpits, flaunting their nether regions? Wandering around this summer, I note that those same girls are still displaying as much flesh as they did back then, except that they are now forty years older and not quite as appealing to the eye. One of the bonuses of September is that the acres of rolling cellulite are put under wraps again.
It is easy to criticise the young whilst suffering from convenient amnesia about how we behaved when we were their age, myself excepted, of course. (Oh, if anyone should mention that bus shelter in Cumberland - let me explain that I was merely being chivalrous and escorting the young lady along a dark road after a late night session in the sergeants’ mess. As I explained at the time, I was delayed in returning by a sudden thunderstorm which made it necessary for us to take cover. We spent our time chatting amicably until the rain stopped. The fact that nobody believed me is immaterial.)
How older people can condemn the young when they themselves have been wandering around supermarkets all the summer attired in their vests and underpants I do not know. It would not be so bad but some of these ancient relics have legs which look like an arterial road map of France. The way that they pass moral judgement on the younger generation when I know as well as they do that they were up to the same tricks half a century ago leaves me flabbergasted.
Jesus said “judge not and you shall not be judged.” That is a sound piece of teaching. Anyone who tells me that they have not erred and strayed from their ways like lost sheep at some time in their lives is suffering from a memory block. Children today are as they have always been, young people likewise. In other words, just like we once were and, in my case, probably considerably better.
May God bless you all, Fr Allan
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