Keep on talking

Yesterday I went to the cinema to see ‘The King’s Speech’.  I thoroughly enjoyed the film – it’s brilliant - but the trip was all the better because I was there with my mum, my daughter Gemma and one of mum’s elderly friends. It’s a fantastic film for mum’s generation as they lived through some of the central events depicted: the death of King George V in January 1936 (though mum wasn’t born till later that year); the ‘Edward and Mrs Simpson’ affair (mum was born while that was going on); the abdication of Edward (mum was one month old); the crowning of King George VI (6 months old); Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler (toddler) and, finally, the speech the king gave when the country went to war with Germany (nearly 3). OK, so mum’s generation were at playgroup while all of that was going on, but they do have a sound knowledge of the time, simply because of the enormity of what happened in the aftermath and the fact that they were growing up during that era.



Gemma and I both commented after the film that we’re embarrassed by how little we know about that period, so it was lovely to listen to mum and her friend reminisce in the car on the way home. One story in particular made me smile (I’ve heard it before, but I still enjoy hearing mum tell it). My mum, her mum and her sisters used to listen to the radio for news of the goings on during the war. Her dad was stationed abroad so they were always anxious to keep up with the latest information. The radio needed a huge battery to power it and mum, fairly regularly, had to take the battery in a shopping trolley (not the tesco kind, the kind your granny uses) or a go-chair to queue up at the place where they charged up the batteries. It weighed a ton, and she was always exhausted by the time she got home, but it was well worth it so that my Gran, my mum and her sisters could listen to their treasured radio. Just how lucky are we nowadays to have the luxury of Duracell AA and plug-in chargers?!



Three generations



It’s a special thing, I think, to pass stories down through the generations. Sometimes it takes a movie to remind us of that, but that’s OK if it has the desired effect of keeping memories alive and making sure that we don’t forget the importance of what’s gone before.