by Quentin Cockburn

What is it about old people?  What happens to make some of them so bloody angry, anti social and life denying.  The coalition gets there thanks to this ossified, encrusted detritus.  And I want to know why?

The kids have an annual fun run around the lake in Bendigo, they raise money for charity. Ten laps and you’d raise a small fortune.  Everyone, (allegedly) loved it!  There was fun and laughter and the ducks and swans rejoiced in the spirit of sharing and giving!  Quacking and trumpeting this spirit of togetherness and harmony across the lake.

But sadly there were those that did not laugh.  I see them every day.  They are the ones who do walking.  Not as a way of seeking communion with nature but rather as a ritual to be observed.  And out they go, depleted of happiness for their walk.  They wear fluoro vests, because as we all know walking can be ‘unsafe’.  That’s why they’ve installed signs to caution, “Dangerous Trees”.  They walk because it is healthy, and healthiness is what we as a nation strive for.  But I think, like the serious cyclists, they don their vest as uniform.  To indicate their solidarity as serious walkers, and for those without vests, Sneetches-like, they are the great unwashed.

But in all that dedication and seriousness, the safety and the resoluteness of walking in file – teeth gritted, and determined to demonstrate the collective, “this is doing us good,” they must have been shaken as children, (primary school children) wheeled about on scooters, tricycles, and trainer wheeled bikes.  And for those who eschewed the more conventional mode, roller blades, skates and boards.  Surrounded by all this laughter, the gaiety and exuberance of youth, what could the walkers do?  This invasion of their private space.  In a public place?

There was only one thing their stiffened resolution required, to band together and write a vitriolic note to the school principal and proclaim,  (I paraphrase) ‘Parks are not for children to gambol in.  Even fund raising children must be restrained.  Their fun is an affront to our earnest healthish-ness.  And besides if a skateboarder, laughing, uncorrected, errant,  should have an accident, or god forbid a collision, with one of us, there’ll be hell to pay’.

Mark my word.  So the circumnavigation of the lake ceased.  Now the children must walk, seriously in proper gym shoes, and perform their task for community in soulless coercion.  The killjoys won.  It reminded me of a time less than recently when an elderly person, in passing conversation pointed to the kids in the Bendigo Secondary Senior, whose university-like campus adjoins the park, proclaiming, ‘its spoilt’!! I looked around expecting to see rubbish and trampled beds, but all I saw was the flower of Australias youth, laughing, some kissing, and others kicking the footy in their public space.

What is it with these old people, or are these a specific type of old person?  The ones I know, and I’m seriously getting old myself are engaged with life and love children.  Half of them are still children themselves.  But I think it goes deeper.  It’s about outlook.  Conservative governments are all about telling the public what they can’t do.  Left leaning governments are all about inspiring people, the public at large, with what their potential is.  And what can be achieved though sharing, mutual respect and imagination.  Kevin Rudd was not left wing.  Somewhere in there, (we are in a conservative era now and it shows no sign of ending), lies the answer.