Time

[Johnoco 7,341]

I was reading about someone at work who was getting an award for working there 25 years. This used to be fairly common but less so these days but that’s another debate. The point was I thought it was a long time but then I realised that January 1995 was 25 years ago. That is fairly recent, or so it seems anyway. 
I remember when a week at school seemed a long time and the 6 weeks holidays seemed like forever. The gap between, say Bonfire night and Christmas seemed to take ages and ages. A year? Forget it, it’s way too far in the future to think such millennia will ever pass.

But now? Days and weeks fly past. A year really isn’t a long time and 5 years seems to occur while you’re not looking.

1990 is 30 years ago. In 1990, 30 years ago was 1960 - at the time it may as  well have been the Jurassic era, so back in time did it seem. Now I can clearly remember things from 40+ years ago. Why is someone speeding up the clocks? Stop it!! 

[gingerjon 12,355]

35 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

I was reading about someone at work who was getting an award for working there 25 years. This used to be fairly common but less so these days but that’s another debate. The point was I thought it was a long time but then I realised that January 1995 was 25 years ago. That is fairly recent, or so it seems anyway. 
I remember when a week at school seemed a long time and the 6 weeks holidays seemed like forever. The gap between, say Bonfire night and Christmas seemed to take ages and ages. A year? Forget it, it’s way too far in the future to think such millennia will ever pass.

But now? Days and weeks fly past. A year really isn’t a long time and 5 years seems to occur while you’re not looking.

1990 is 30 years ago. In 1990, 30 years ago was 1960 - at the time it may as  well have been the Jurassic era, so back in time did it seem. Now I can clearly remember things from 40+ years ago. Why is someone speeding up the clocks? Stop it!! 

I'm now five years older than the youngest I can remember my dad being. And he was always ancient.

[Johnoco 7,341]

13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I'm now five years older than the youngest I can remember my dad being. And he was always ancient.

Well exactly. When you are 16-18, 30 is old. 

[gingerjon 12,355]

4 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

Well exactly. When you are 16-18, 30 is old. 

How old do you think my dad was? How dare you impugn the Archdeacon?

But the one I was always use is: the First World War was properly ancient history when I was born roughly sixty years after it ended. It's now 75 years since the end of the Second World War.

[Futtocks 13,319]

59 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

I was reading about someone at work who was getting an award for working there 25 years. This used to be fairly common but less so these days but that’s another debate. The point was I thought it was a long time but then I realised that January 1995 was 25 years ago. That is fairly recent, or so it seems anyway. 
I remember when a week at school seemed a long time and the 6 weeks holidays seemed like forever. The gap between, say Bonfire night and Christmas seemed to take ages and ages. A year? Forget it, it’s way too far in the future to think such millennia will ever pass.

But now? Days and weeks fly past. A year really isn’t a long time and 5 years seems to occur while you’re not looking.

1990 is 30 years ago. In 1990, 30 years ago was 1960 - at the time it may as  well have been the Jurassic era, so back in time did it seem. Now I can clearly remember things from 40+ years ago. Why is someone speeding up the clocks? Stop it!! 

True; a rainy Sunday afternoon used to take at least a week to finish. Now I try hard not to blink, in case I miss it.

[Robin Evans 3,256]

Alright now by free is 50 yrs old this year. 

What's the story morning glory 25 years old. The year I became a nurse. I get a bit twitchy when i consider where that time has gone

[Johnoco 7,341]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

How old do you think my dad was? How dare you impugn the Archdeacon?

But the one I was always use is: the First World War was properly ancient history when I was born roughly sixty years after it ended. It's now 75 years since the end of the Second World War.

That’s an analogy I’ve used too. Its very strange to think that the 70’s and 80’s, which  I remember well, are seen as ancient history by young people today. Actually, I heard the charts of this week 1980 on the radio show Pick of the Pops the other day and it reminded me of various things that happened in early 1980. It only later struck me that this was actually 40 years ago! 

[Johnoco 7,341]

3 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

True; a rainy Sunday afternoon used to take at least a week to finish. Now I try hard not to blink, in case I miss it.

Yes, Sunday used to last ages in those days. It genuinely was a different day to the rest of the week. Now it’s almost just another day.

[Johnoco 7,341]

3 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

Alright now by free is 50 yrs old this year. 

What's the story morning glory 25 years old. The year I became a nurse. I get a bit twitchy when i consider where that time has gone

Precisely. Can you imagine someone in 1970 going ‘here mate, check out this record from 1920’?

[gingerjon 12,355]

1 minute ago, Johnoco said:

That’s an analogy I’ve used too. Its very strange to think that the 70’s and 80’s, which  I remember well, are seen as ancient history by young people today. Actually, I heard the charts of this week 1980 on the radio show Pick of the Pops the other day and it reminded me of various things that happened in early 1980. It only later struck me that this was actually 40 years ago! 

BBC Four are showing Top of the Pops from 1989. That's the first year when I pretty much watched it every week. It is very Proustian. I'm basically back in a living room in Bury wondering if I'll make it to the end before my parents come in and demand to put something else on.

[Johnoco 7,341]

6 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

BBC Four are showing Top of the Pops from 1989. That's the first year when I pretty much watched it every week. It is very Proustian. I'm basically back in a living room in Bury wondering if I'll make it to the end before my parents come in and demand to put something else on.

You didn’t used to watch TOTP every week in the 70’s? 

[ckn 14,042]

Last year, it was 30 years since I joined the army. 25 years since I left (I've been a pensioner longer than I've not!). 20 years since I got married. My god-daughter is 18 now and it seems like yesterday I visited them in hospital when she was born.

The last decade is a bit of a blur of thinking "where the hell did that go?!"

On the perception of age thing. I remember my 18th birthday party for my mates at a nightclub, my dad turned up (uninvited), he's 20 years older than me so 38 at the time. He got drunk and started flirting with one of my female friends. I could only think "you dirty, dirty old man" (another age related TV reference there)

[gingerjon 12,355]

19 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

You didn’t used to watch TOTP every week in the 70’s? 

In spirit

[Clogiron 1,830]

I am now the same age as what my dad was when he died and that was 40 years ago! I always remember watching 'All our Yesterday's' which concerned events that had happened 25 years previously when it covered the start of the second world war. That seemed like ancient history to the young me at the time, now it's 80 years ago

[Gerrumonside ref 2,010]

Isn’t perception of time linked to the way the brain handles memories?

Due to it’s architecture we have a better memory (somewhat counterintuitively) of events from when we were much younger than of events from more recent times.

Happy to be corrected, but I think this is how science has explained social phenomenon such as nostalgia.

[Futtocks 13,319]

3 hours ago, Johnoco said:

Precisely. Can you imagine someone in 1970 going ‘here mate, check out this record from 1920’?

Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder was published in 1950. Elvis Presley's first recording was 3 years later. Now that's a fast-changing musical scene!

Edited March 5 by Futtocks

[Bearman 3,996]

When I was 17 I remember hearing a line from a folk song " 21 years of age , full of youth and good looking"

I remember thinking 21? Thats not young.

[Moose 389]

Recorded 7th June 1972, released 1st March 1973.

 

 

[gittinsfan 395]

I sometimes think about people I have worked with over the years.I wonder what they might be up to nowadays and then I realise that a lot of them will have died.

[Johnoco 7,341]

8 minutes ago, Moose said:

Recorded 7th June 1972, released 1st March 1973.

 

 

I always think of the line from that,

‘and then one day you find, 10 years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun’

 

Or even

’Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled line’. 

Edited March 5 by Johnoco

[JohnM 6,735]

20 minutes ago, gittinsfan said:

I sometimes think about people I have worked with over the years.I wonder what they might be up to nowadays and then I realise that a lot of them will have died.

Barnaby!...arrest that man! 

[my missus 411]

an hour has flown by while i have been reading this topic.

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

[MattSantos 805]

My lad is nearly 1. Nearly 1!

Jesus wept time is flying.

Enjoy it while we can. 

[Shadow 5,753]

Mine is nearly 30

[BryanC 477]

Time (and life) is like a toilet roll.

At the beginning, the roll is full and turns slowly when pulled.

As time goes on and the roll runs down, it spins faster and faster.