Where parks are filled with purple buds

And music’s filled with poetry.

Where no one carries mobile phones

And friends don’t know what or where I ate today.

Where books are printed, no exceptions

And kids play out on bikes.

Now it sounds like stuff of dreams,

But it existed once, I think,

Although today it feels like it was read

And conjured in my mind.

My fourteen year old son came in while I was watching You’ve Got Mail today. And it was like trying to pull teeth, trying to explain to him why the whole story was crazy back in the day.

It seemed almost too much for him to comprehend how we could have lived without having friends we had made online. And the idea that people didn’t find their significant others online was groundbreaking to him.

It makes me smile because I look back at those days like they were from another world, and a world that I remember fondly. I wonder what fresh new hell we will be living in by the time my son has a teenager and can’t believe that we could have survived only having broadband and 5G (God forbid)!

I found myself watching the movie with fresh eyes and noticing all the little things that made those times feel so simple and charming, to today’s tech savvy teenagers. They weren’t all glued to mobile phones, the laptops were the size of TV sets, they used dial-up, they enjoyed singing carols around a piano without having to take photos and posting about their totally ironic Christmas Eve activity; the list could go on.

It was only twenty years ago but it feels like another world, and one I miss so much. I can only imagine what I’m going to be like when I’m in my eighties and complaining about what all these youngsters are up to.

And with that, I’ll leave you all to your Saturday afternoons while I go back to watching my Dawson’s Creek box set.

Much Love

Rachel xx