CHARNEY HALL In Retrospect

Whilst tidying up my iPad this unpublished draft appeared without notice on the screen.....it refers to Life’s googlies.....Iittle did I know that one was just about to be bowled at the planet... 

 

  Grange-over-Sands

“ I’ve lived the life of a teenager for more than 60yrs, by-passed middle age and suddenly I have realised that I am an old man and have run out of time.....how do I know? People no longer look at me on the street. It is as though I no longer exist.

I’ve survived 4 economic recessions and at the end of my working life my income, allowing for inflation, was little more than when I first embarked on the career of my choice. I’ve had 2 wives, 2 children, 2 step-children, 4 jobs, 10 cars, bought 3 homes, had numerous holidays and at times worked all the hours in a day. When I retired the back-up files of the most productive part of my life fitted on a few dvds......for me that put it all into rude perspective - what was all that about? 

I have no regrets except that I wonder whether there must be a better way for H. Sapiens to live a contented, more meaningful life. If given the choice again I would most probably follow a similar path. It could be that genetics play a greater part in determining our life than we ever thought possible. 

What I failed to do was to appreciate how much my parents invested in me when I was younger. Current fees for a public school education are well over 30K/yr. That is an enormous commitment and a staggering amount to put aside for one child. 

This blog is in part an attempt to put on record part of the investment my parents made. It is also a chance to recall the naïvety of youth, a time when the horrors of WW2 were not far away, when the wheels of industry and commerce were greased in a different way, when given a little bit of ingenuity most things could be repaired and could, with care, last forever, when accountants and media men had yet to discover how to create demand, meddle with our minds and build in obsolescence. 

Like it or not, our generation was responsible for priming the modern way of life and kick-starting the present speed of change. This generation anticipates an exponential change in population, climate, pollution, communications and technology with all the potential problems that this implies.

When we were sent away to board at Charney Hall our lives were set out firmly in front of us. We knew that we would leave at the age of 13 and having been committed to the private education system, would continue to a public school, take ‘O’ levels and ‘A’ levels in turn, attend perhaps College or University and thereafter be offered a well paid, secure job for life. What we were not told was that Life could, without warning, bowl a few nasty googlies along the way. However the chances are that the majority of us have made it through to a reasonable retirement.

In retrospect, in the future, it may be considered that our generation experienced all the best that life had to offer at the time. We are now only just beginning to realise that we really did have our fingers in both pies - the best of post war Britain when life appeared much simpler, more predictable and the delights of the sunrise of the beginning of a new digital age whose potential is way beyond our present conception.

We owe this in part to our education, and to the masters who dedicated their time often in a quasi-parental role, imparting a set of values which seemed harsh at the time but which equipped us to withstand the big dipper of the life to come in the outside world.

If you stumble across this blog please add a comment and preferably a tale or two of your time at Charney, scan/email any photos and I will add them to the collection for posterity.”

Keith Smith 22 Mar 2019