We don't all remember the war

[seashaken]

I've just been for a walk and passed a pub with a notice up about a lunch with entertainment for the over 60s. The entertainment is a crooner singing a selection of wartime favourites. Now I'm 66 and the cultural movements that informed my youth were hippies, glam rock and punk. For people 10-20 years older than me it would've been Elvis, mods and rockers, the Beatles and there can't be many people in the target age group with clear memories of the war, many wouldn't have been born. Obviously I realise the audience will be self-selecting and anyone who prefers Led Zeppelin will give it a swerve, but I did find it depressing that this is still considered appropriate entertainment for people my age. I don't want to find myself in a care home in 20 years time being forced to listen to Vera Lynn.

I was born in the mid 60's. Me and DD have an on running joke that any home she choses for me must be based on what music they play....if it doesn't include punk, indie, grunge and a bit of early glam rock then I shall haunt her with all the malevolence I can muster. 😆

My mum is the same age as you - she wears leather trousers and travels out to Greece every summer to help her 80 yo cousin run the live music festival she hosts. She wouldn't thank anyone for that kind of "entertainment" either - she was in prime in the 70s and 80s!

Nirvana, Stone Roses, Oasis, Pulp, Blur & James for me, I'll add in some Queen so I can say I'm listening to stuff from before my time.

Agree regarding the capsules. 😝

As a child of the 1980s, it was always drummed into us that old people had either fought in the war or lived through it. I think a lot of people can't get out of that mindset and see old people and automatically think ww2.

You and me both. 😁 The vibrations, Ray pollard, Linda Jones. 😁

Yeah, that's crazy. The war ended in 1945, which 78 years ago, so to remember the songs of that time fondly you'd need to be at least 85, I reckon. Now it's fair enough to have entertainment for the very old, but it does limit your audience somewhat!

Hell yeah, never mind "Knees up Mother Brown" just imagine a bunch of 80 years olds yelling "You gotta fight for your right to paaaarrrrrttty", at the afternoon tea dance.

Or better still a bit of Rage Against the Machine...."Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me".

There might be something in that.
But the 1980 was 40 years after the the war, 2020 in 40 years after 1980!

I suppose there’s the possibility some of the older ones who remember their parents listening to that sort of music might enjoy it. My teen years were the mid to late 80s, but I prefer late 60’s, early 70’s music.

Well my Dad was born in 1939 and very much DOES remember the war, despite being only small. I think people forget that rationing and the after effects of WW2 went on for years afterwards! Rationing was 8 years after, which my mum who was born in 1944, remembers well.

Also, there's a huuuuge following of people who love anything to with the 1940s & wartime era.

YABVVVU!

@seashaken Maybe you should call in and have a word with the Landlord/lady and try to get them up to date - talk about living in the past!

Please don't do this! You'll embarrass yourself! As I said, there are many, many people of all ages who love anything to do with WW2 - me included and I'm 38! Please

loveofthe40s.co.uk/40s-dates-2022

For most people, the music that means most to them is from their teenage years. So if you’re 65 for example you were 13-20 from 1970-77.

my years were 78-85. That’s the music I want to listen to when I’m in a care home.

Vera Lynn had an album, with new material, peak at number 3 only five years ago. Obviously there are fans out there.

I'm 64. My "era" was the 70s though I'll take anything from 1972 up to now. Not so keen on 60s stuff.
DH born in 1949 and was a hippy in the sixties so zero knowledge or liking for anything pre 1965.

1980 to 1988 my era.plus trans stuff from the 90s and dance house music 90s.

A colleague (60ish) went on a cruise aimed at over 55 year olds recently. He came back complaining the entertainment was very dated. I commented that, as a cruise for older people, he should probably have expected The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Slade etc. and not the 70's/80's music of his particular taste. Apparently it was Vera Lynn, Roll out the Barrel etc!
How long will the romancing WW2 continue? Surely it is not romancing but an interest. I disagree with forgetting history. I have a friend obsessed with The Tudors, another with the Battle of Bannockburn (1300's?).

Nothing wrong with it as history or an interest. People go to Tudor themed evenings, medieval themed evenings, viking themed stuff. There can still be WW2 themed events. But if you're advertising a nigr aimed at over 60s then give them entertainment to match their youth. Hardly anyone is left alive from the ww2 era unless they were a very young child at the time. No one wants ww2 entertainment when they're expecting entertainment reminiscent of their youth.

Yes my dad is almost 78, born a few months before the end of the war so he obviously doesn’t remember any of it.
His favourite music = Neil Young, Rolling Stones, REM, U2.

The OP struck a chord with me. My dad is not well and declining. He’s not at the care home stage yet, but I’ve started research and had a look at websites and social media pages for a few homes. None of them seemed to have the right feel for my dad - activities programmes of bingo, wartime singalongs, lots of Royal related stuff, making paper hats… all a bit too ‘old dear’ for my dad. I think he’d lose the will to live if he had to play bingo to a soundtrack of Glenn Miller!

But it's not assumed that you all like the Spice Girls or Boyzone because you are all of a certain age and that's the point. Just because a person is over 60 it's assumed (as per OP's post), that WW2 music is the default setting when ,for a great many over 60's it isn't.

How can remembering a war that fought against fascism be considered fascist and right wing? That makes absolutely no sense?

My hometown has Tudor festivals every year and we recently went to a Roman experience whilst on holiday.

Ww2 era tends to be more popular but that's probably because it's far more documented and most people today have heard first hand accounts from people they know.

There's nothing wrong with people remembering a time in a history and being part of reenactments etc.

My 10 year old DD loved learning about ww2 during the lockdown VE Day celebrations, she's still incredibly interested now, should I tell her to stop learning about it because it's fascist and right wing to do so?

Will there be drugs too? I think a day room full of tripped out geriatric stoners would make care work most interesting and decrepitude quite tolerable..

Will there be drugs too?

Presumably most will be on something.

I think they'll all be on drugs in a care home.