AK
I wouldn't say meaningless, they made you what you are. In some ways you've passed this to your children and grandchildren.

tomo
As a "plague on all your houses" person I get a lot of pleasure predicting the most popular comments on the The Mail and Guardian online. Although different I would class them as equally rabid, despite coming from different extremes.

AK "All meaningless pleasures now".

Doing historical research, it's the oddest snippet that someone thought to record that fills in the blanks that the obvious recollections miss out. I sift through near identical images and just wish people had recorded their home or that derelict building nearby instead of the chocolate box view.

Playing in bombed ruins, especially sliding down the coal shutes (to the despair of my mother and the anger of my father). Becoming a senior at school (graduating to long trousers). Riding pinion behind my father, so relegating my mother to the sidecar. All meaningless pleasures now.

Baby girl found alive inside plastic bag. So I guess plastic does have its merits after all?

I'm more of a snowflake generation. Still plenty of playing in the dirt but we had a TV so we could watch such classics as The Road to Larochelle, Belle and Sebastion and The Singing, Ringing tree. I got my first computer at about 13 and only had to wait about 20 years for the internet.