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Something I'm reminded of on occasion is the fact that, when we're kids, not only don't we know what the future holds, it never really occurs to us to wonder. Sure, in a sense we anticipate the future by looking forward to birthdays and Christmases and holidays and next week's comics, but our anticipation of such events is firmly set in the present reality of our current existence.
As adults, we don't know what the future holds either, but we know that we don't know, whereas kids don't ever think about it. For example, when I had my 13th birthday, I was totally unaware that my next birthday would occur in a different house in another neighbourhood. Same with Christmas. On a subconscious level, I probably imagined that I'd have many more birthdays and Christmases in the same house that I'd had the previous seven. 'Twas not to be.
Looking back, I don't recall my parents ever mentioning to my brother and me that they were considering flitting (which we did a lot) until the event was practically upon us. We never heard them propose or discuss the prospect, nor were we ever informed in advance of everything having already been arranged, with absolutely no consultation with us. I'm sure it must've felt strange to buy a comic or watch a TV show while living in one house, then buy the next issue or watch the following episode in another. Curiously though, I can't remember.
Sometimes I'll look at a comic which I strongly associate with a particular house, and it seems I had the comic in that house for years, then I'll catch sight of the date and realise that we'd moved not too long after. Take the 1972 PERSUADERS Holiday Special as an example. In memory, it seems that I'd bought it months, maybe even up to a year or so, before moving from my former house. However, it probably went on sale around May, and as we flitted halfway through June, I couldn't have had it for any more than a few weeks (at the very most) before moving.
Y'know, I always have a destination in mind when I start a post, but by the time I get to the end I've very often forgotten where I was going. I find it extremely difficult to maintain my stream of consciousness for longer than a few moments these days, which is extremely frustrating for me. It's probably even more frustrating for you, wading through my woeful witterings only to be left wondering what I'm on about. (Or perhaps simply wondering what I'm on.)
I suppose I'm just idly reflecting on how, whenever I re-read a comic from an earlier time in my life, I'm often surprised when I look up from its pages to find that I'm not still in the house where I first read it (and with which I most associate it), even if I didn't have it there for as long as I thought I did before moving.
In memory's house, though, are many mansions (clever Biblical allusion), and you can live in whichever one you want whenever the fancy takes you. (Or maybe even in all of them at once.) In that way, the past is always present. As for the future? That will be the past soon enough.
Y'know, I always have a destination in mind when I start a post, but by the time I get to the end I've very often forgotten where I was going. I find it extremely difficult to maintain my stream of consciousness for longer than a few moments these days, which is extremely frustrating for me. It's probably even more frustrating for you, wading through my woeful witterings only to be left wondering what I'm on about. (Or perhaps simply wondering what I'm on.)
I suppose I'm just idly reflecting on how, whenever I re-read a comic from an earlier time in my life, I'm often surprised when I look up from its pages to find that I'm not still in the house where I first read it (and with which I most associate it), even if I didn't have it there for as long as I thought I did before moving.
In memory's house, though, are many mansions (clever Biblical allusion), and you can live in whichever one you want whenever the fancy takes you. (Or maybe even in all of them at once.) In that way, the past is always present. As for the future? That will be the past soon enough.
