> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of [email protected] > Sent: 06 September 2009 21:50 > To: [email protected] > Subject: [canals-list] Re: In the Saturday Telegraph travel section - > more canal dreamery > > On Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:58:48 +0100, "Bru" > <[email protected]> wrote: > > >Only 76? There used to be *thousands*! > > Not on Apollo Duck! > > >I do know things ain't what they used to be > > But they never were .... > > One point to which you may be giving insufficient attention is that > active young folk have many more opportunities for exciting pastimes > available to them: waterskiing, wakeboarding, kayaking, jetskiing, > sailing and so on. Craft suitable for those activities are widely > available and comparatively cheap. It may be that appreciation of the > virtues of pottering slowly along canals comes only with mature years
Let me see now ... Kayaking, yep did that in my youth Had a go on a jet ski too Waterskiing? Fell off, gave up Wakeboarding probably wasn;t around then but surfing was As for sailing? Every Wednesday afternoon during the summer for games at school Then there was mountaineering, fell walking and freezing to bloody death in a fog on top of the Black Mountains Tried caving too, didn;t like it All of the above activities, and lots of others, were readily and widely available even to a lazy little git like me through school, the Scouts, youth clubs etc. and I really did try all of them - some of them more than once. Then I got a bit older and discovered motorbikes. Fell off. Got back on. Fell off. Gave up And girls - still trying to work them out but it's fun trying And souped up Ford Capris. Sad I know but I'd still have one even now And beer - still trying to work *that* one out too. And, unfortunately, cigarettes (OK, OK, I lie, I found *them* when I was 13) Maybe I went boating because I was worn out from the exciting life I'd had as a teenager? So what, exactly, was the point you were making? :-) In fact, to be serious for a moment, I'm bloody glad I was born in the 60's and a teenager in the 70's. I'd hate to be a kid today! I was born to late for the post-war austerity years but early enough for life to be still pretty simple and innocent. I look at my kids (OK, not quite kids these days but you know what I mean) and their friends and the pressures they face and think "thank God I don't have to go through that". Life was not all roses (and castles!) but it was pretty damn good actually. Bru
