When I was starting primary school in the mid-70s, the second world war had been over for about 30 years. It was still in people’s minds — they still talked about it, a whole episode of Fawlty Towers was based around the recent memory of it. By the time I was in high school with a weekend job, WW2 had been over for about 40 years, and the owner of the shop and many of his friends were veterans. WW1 was very much ancient history, having finished 60-70 years previously. There were survivors from it around, but it seemed so long ago and out of reach.

Now my kids are growing up. WW2 ended almost 60 years ago. They’re not old enough to really understand the implications of a world war, and given how far away and out of reach WW2 must seem to today’s kids, maybe they never will.

On a more amusing note: Jeremy wanted to look at the London Underground web site. I typed in the URL — thetube.com — and hit enter. My computer’s browser sent the request, down the ADSL line to my ISP, then onto the net at large, searching for the server, halfway around the planet to other side of the world, to process the request and send the page content back. Shock horror gasp, it took about ten seconds to start coming back, time enough for Jeremy to ask “Why is it taking so long?”

No appreciation of the marvels of technology, the youth of today. No patience.