Remembering Better Days

I can't imagine not being alive and enjoying life; I guess this is the trick that Mother Nature plays on us all

and before you know it, your nipples are getting closer to your belly button, than you ever thought possible.

Knees ache, back breaks and the once nimble twenty something has reached that age

which, a few years ago would have allowed a woman to pick up her pension from the state.

But no, the big wigs have decided that instead of equalising pensions down the way,

women and men would work, quite possibly to their dying day.

Even in Russia, when the state proposed an increase for women's pension to sixty,

mass protests made the government decide to not be so thrifty.

Funding cuts, library closures and the like, take a lot of free things from life.

At least the parks are still open for business, so to speak

but there's not enough parkies and gardeners to keep

the place the way it used to be; no boats or putting, that kept the kids at play

without smashing up the buildings and terrorising the wild life

or mugging the elderly, making them frightened to go outside.

Whatever happened to the F.E. Centres with badminton, netball and woodwork classes

that were reasonably cheap, encouraging the kids to meet in a supervised fashion.

These community heroes in the local centres who gave up their time to help the lesser

privileged kids with no role models, to raise their expectations in life and want to get better

at sports, being a good friend and team mate and learning the importance of community

in helping the less fortunate get out of poverty.