I think we need to interact with old people more. For one it might change their thoughts on us rotten kids, secondly they hold a whole world of knowledge that you just can’t find on the internet.
Old people are like a past generation Google but for experience rather than knowledge. You can learn so much from our older generation, whenever I can I’ll ask my grandad what life was like after the war when he was growing up, he might not remember all of it but it’s interesting to hear his stories.
I’d much rather hear war stories and memories of other people than play them in unrealistic recreations in games.* I don’t think we give enough thought to what life was like before our times when such monumental events took place before we were even thought of.
Personally I’d have LOVED to have been around for the big dirty punk movement of the 70’s and 80’s, but I can get a pretty close approximation of how it must have felt by talking to someone who lived through it from different perspectives. Your mom and dad would probably see these events much more differently to their parents.
Admittedly old people can be a little bit racist, homophobic and very questionable on certain similar issues, so don’t take everything they say as gospel if you’re one of the people whose grandad has an interesting opinion on “the Blacks” or “the gays”, I recommend talking about something else before he goes into another 3 hour rant about immigration.
*- yes Call of Duty, I’m looking at you.
Overall, I think our elders deserve a lot more credit and appreciation, but I’m just a big fan of stories, so that’s just me.
Hope you’re all having a great Saturday,
~James
Little Broken Pencil 