{"id":12916,"date":"2019-12-27T12:26:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T12:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=12916"},"modified":"2019-12-27T14:00:19","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T14:00:19","slug":"what-would-they-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=12916","title":{"rendered":"What would they think?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have been thinking about my Nana and Bampa a lot, lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We used to visit them on a Sunday, about once every 2-3 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nana would always lay out a proper tea and there would be sandwiches and little cakes and lemonade, and ice cream so cold that it steamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And there would be the smell of Bampa&#8217;s pipe that I can&#8217;t quite recall the scent of, but it would be there in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We would have to wear Sunday Best to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I remember I disliked dressing up, but I was made to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes we would walk to the shop on the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes we would be allowed to play in the parc on the swings and slide and roundabouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bargoed, their little town, in that valley, surrounded by its coal heaps and mines and slag heaps and mineral railway and coal-buckets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"192\" height=\"262\" src=\"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bargoed5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12917\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bargoed5.jpg 192w, https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Bargoed5-110x150.jpg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><figcaption>Coal buckets that crossed the valley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s another world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though the images are clear in my head, the pictures are of a time long gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last 30 years alone the world has changed almost beyond recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would our rapidly evolving world look to them? How comfortable would they be in it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We used to visit my Dad&#8217;s sister, Auntie Mair as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She lived some way distant. To get to her house we would have to go past the railway viaduct in Ystrad Mynach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" src=\"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ystrad1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ystrad1.jpg 259w, https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ystrad1-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Ystrad1-200x150.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Her little terraced house backed on to the railway at the end of the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She had cable television (!) from Redifusion, and an outside toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nowadays I wonder about these two things co-existing, but back then I didn&#8217;t give it another thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was far from being a perfect child. I like to think I have fewer imperfections these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I look at how we live now, at the country we live in and at how we conduct ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I look at the world, and the damage and destruction and devastation we have inflicted, and are continuing to inflict on it &#8211; and on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I look at our leaders and see how they wear their faults and failings as if they were badges of honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I wonder, I truly do wonder how Nana and Bampa and Aunty Mair and all of their generation would regard this world now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would they look upon us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t answer my own question with any great detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I feel I can say, with some certainty, that they would be unimpressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As am I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been thinking about my Nana and Bampa a lot, lately. We used to visit them on a Sunday, about once every 2-3 weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}