How things have changed. I can still remember my first camera. It was a very cheap Kodak “instamatic”? – or some such silly name. Naturally I thought it was great and had it for a few years from about the age of seven (I seem to recall). Dani now has a camera at age four. A digital camera of course with various special effects built in.

We live in a digital age where virtually everyone can take high quality photos on their mobile phone. We also live in an age of instant gratification. Kids today would not be able to wait a couple of days (or more!) for a film to be developed into photographs. Photographic film? What’s that dad? Exactly.

How many of you can recall having to wait a few days while the pharmacists developed your Kodak film? Why was it always the chemist’s shop that did them?

Then came the cheaper special offer. We used to send our films away in special envelopes just because it saved a few pennies on each picture. Those places became quite popular for a while – probably due to their prices – but they took even longer. You might have had to wait a couple of weeks before seeing your photographs. Only to discover that most of them turned out to be low quality grainy pictures. Probably because your camera was cheap, low quality rubbish to begin with.

Why right now?

Why does everything have to be right now? It gets worse. These day kids and adults alike cannot even ask or wait for someone else to take their photo. They do it themselves.

When Dani is older he will realise that his old man grew up in an era where a ‘selfie’ could have been misinterpreted as a code word for masturbation.

What about waiting a few days to receive a letter? No chance! In this era of (anti) social media I wonder if kids are taught how to post a letter; never mind write one. It is all instant text messaging and ‘posting’ means getting your selfies up on Facebook. Ugh! Even typing that F-word makes me feel queasy.

Which reminds me….

Which brings me back to schooling…. Always the subject of discussion these days for parents. I started writing something about school back in my day which I need to finish off and get ‘posted’. It’s a bit daft – crazy even – but it is all true and a little piece of my school history for my son to read. I think you may all enjoy it.

Ok. Time for this old git to get back off the soap-box. There’s work to be done…A little rant now and again never hurts. At least that’s my take on it.

PS: Post title today inspired by an early Jam track.