A POST ABOUT PARENTS & POSTERS...

Not one of the original posters mentioned, but
better than nothing.  Image copyright DISNEY

I'm not a parent, but even given my status as non-participant
in that category, I'm smart enough to realise just how difficult -
and even heartbreaking - the position must often be.  There's an
ad on telly at the moment featuring The MUPPETS (the full ver-
sion is very funny), and seeing it just a few moments ago took my
mind back to an occasion involving my father in the late 1970s.
Allow me to relate it to you now, as I'm sure it'll remind you
of similar incidents concerning your own parents.

My father loved nothing more than going into Glasgow every

weekend and trawling around his old haunts from his youth.  He

always visited The BARRAS or PADDY'S MARKET, and one

Saturday evening he returned home with two Muppet posters for

me and my brother.  At that time I'd have been in my late teens or

early twenties, and my brother was in the latter age group, so we

both poured scorn on the very idea of having a Muppet poster

in either of our rooms, as it would've been 'uncool'.

This attitude must've confused my father, because me and

my brother both watched The Muppet Show and enjoyed their

mad antics, so he naturally assumed we'd each appreciate a poster

of the objects of our TV affections.  Our ingratitude must have hurt,

although I don't recall him showing it.  A similar incident happened
a few years later when he brought back a poster of Scottish Steam
Trains for me, although I'd never shown any interest in railway
matters.  Again, my lack of enthusiasm or gratitude for his
parental thoughtfulness must have hurt him.

We were living in another house at the time of the second

poster event, and I remember, a few weeks after moving from

it back to our previous home, I called in (by previous arrange-

ment) to the house we'd not long vacated to take some photos of

the place (ah, ever the nostalgist), and the tenant with whom we'd

swapped properties suddenly dug out the train poster from the

cupboard outside what had recently been my bedroom.  I took
a photo of him holding the poster, while feeling vaguely

ashamed of just how heartlessly I'd abandoned it.

I had to abandon it a second time, because he never of-

fered it to me to take away as I left, but at least I've got a

photograph of it to remind me of how thankless kids can be to

their parents, however unintentional it may be.  Maybe one day

I'll track down replacements for all three posters - then, should I
ever have kids even at my advanced age (hey, you can get many
a nasty sting from a dying bee), it'll remind me to try and be pa-

tient whenever they behave in a similar way to myself (and

my brother - I refuse to take all the blame) when I was

young and thoughtless.  Then again, aren't we all?

Any similar incidents in your own youth you'd care to

share?  That way, I can maybe pretend that I wasn't quite

the ungrateful little b*st*rd that I must've seemed at the
time.  C'mon, help assuage my sense of guilt, eh?

Looking at this photo, I see that we also left the
light-shade.  How casually we abandon things
that have served us faithfully, eh?

Posted in: Cartoons