Longford Leader columnist Mattie Fox: Adapting with good guidance from their elders

The sense of shock was more to do with the realisation, now, that our parents must have seen the world as they knew it explode in a hail of debris, and the morals and values they held dear thrown to the four winds!

What with skimpy skirts, provocative dancing (yes that was back then), and seemingly untrammelled flirtation it must have appeared like a terrible blasphemy to our parents.

Of course, to us, it was the opening door of a life of freedom which was embraced by the youth of the day.
Looking back, nearly sixty years later, I can now see just how radical the changes were - the dress, hairstyles, ideas, and popular music. What a worrying time it must have been for our parents whose lives followed a pattern of beliefs that were based on modesty and respect in a society that had order and regularity, and was moving conservatively towards modernity and development.

It must have worried most parents greatly, to see their children growing up in this mad world.

But it wasn’t a time when all ideas were aired in the media - which was limited to radio, TV and print - so they did their best and prayed hard that their families would survive the onslaught.

By and large, they did.

The youth of the time knew no other life and so embraced and adapted with good guidance from their elders.
The same can be said about the present engagement of social media and its trappings.

Children are born into this ‘modern’ world that parents don’t really understand but they too will muddle through as best they can, and the old advice and guiding hand carries the same weight as it always did.