As a rare treat we might have a fruit cocktail or perhaps some peaches, but these would invariably be tinned, never fresh. Mangoes, kiwi fruits, nectarines, melons, all were either too exotic for us or even unheard of; bananas and grapes had been available in the UK for ages, but I can’t remember them being commonplace in our household; peppers and aubergines never crossed the threshold; the list goes on and on……….Young customers were catered for with the Penny Tray, a variety of sweets that you could buy in low volume. For one old penny, you could get four blackjacks or four fruit salads, a penny chew or a liquorice stick. There were Flying Saucers made from rice paper and filled with sherbet, and foam shrimps. Four aniseed balls cost a penny, as did a single gobstopper.

Then, in November 1963, something humungous happened; Doctor Who burst on the scene. The first episode was creepy, but nothing compared to the second, when the Daleks arrived to exterminate the world. People often talk of where they were when they heard of important events like Kennedy’s assassination; folk my age know exactly where they were when earthlings got their first view of the Daleks, we were cowering behind the sofa. They were terrifying but irresistible, and Saturday afternoons would never be the same. 

In 1955, world maps still showed large areas of the globe in pink or red as part of the British Empire, but that was soon to change……….… The Warsaw Pact came into being in 1955 in response to the creation of NATO, a military alliance between Western bloc countries. The Cold War was the result of this, bringing the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. It seems strange now, but we regularly received, through public service broadcasts or leaflets, instruction on how to react in the event of a nuclear attack. Strange times indeed. In my earlier years the USSR was a military superpower covering nearly a sixth of the globe, yet now it’s gone.   ………….Had I been able to buy a satnav back then, investing in lifetime map updates would indeed have been prudent. 

Other changes followed; station rubbish bins were popular with the IRA as receptacles for small bombs so, in 1991, following the explosion of a device in a bin on Victoria Station concourse, the police removed all bins from London stations. Shortly after, bins were removed from all London streets. Bikes, too, became objects of suspicion as small explosives could be concealed in the frame. The Troubles finally ended in 1998 and the streets of London became a little safer for a few years until the next wave of terrorist-inspired attacks. 

The Buddhist doctrine of Impermanence, anicca or anitya, sums it up; nothing lasts forever. If you’re going through bad times take strength from the fact that they won’t last forever, but also enjoy the good times while you can as they too have a limited shelf life. The status quo won’t last and inevitably power will move in time, probably eastwards. Change unleashes irresistible forces and individuals can only go with the flow. 
Unless you are the likes of Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, Alexander the Great or Adolf Hitler, it is unlikely that your actions will significantly affect the way of the world. That being the case, the kids are being a little unfair in blaming their parents for the current state of the world; things just happen, and you deal with it.