When I was in my twenties and visiting my mum, I was expounding some aspects of H.G.Wells, "Outline of History."
My mum listened quietly while I lectured on, lost in the sound of my own words, trying no doubt, to show her what a great intellectual I was.
Finally I finished and asked her "What do you think of that, mum?"
"Well, Sid" (the family name for myself which I hate)" I think you are a great talker and maybe you can think a little bit, too. That book you mention I read when I was seventeen. My brother Ern got it from the Sutherland circulating library at The School of Arts, Sutherland on the other side of the railway line. I forget the street......."
"Yes mum. but anyway what do you think of the book?" I asked impatiently.
"It is as it is named, an Outline. If you want to go further read "The Story of Civilization" by Will Durant.
"Sure, mum, I will sometime."
...............................................................
I was pretty busy for the next few years chasing girls, trying to impress them with my brilliance (but not my money since I lived mostly hand to mouth).
Finally in my early old age in the local public library I noticed a volume "Our Oriental Heritage" by Will Durant.
I read it and the other volumes of the set and found my mum had been right, (again).
This set of volumes was the most fascinating I have ever read, even more so than "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons.
My mum was in her nineties when my unforgiving family last sent me word of her.
I learned a lot from my mum in our many talks. Pity I did not act on the advice I was given.
I was convinced I knew more than my mum, who left school at age fourteen to go to work to help feed her family in the Great Depression.
Some half dozen years ago, one of my sons, emerging from teen-age chaos, told me "You don't understand how it is these days, dad. It is not like back in the middle ages when you were young."
Ric Williams.
.......................................................................................................................
My mum listened quietly while I lectured on, lost in the sound of my own words, trying no doubt, to show her what a great intellectual I was.
Finally I finished and asked her "What do you think of that, mum?"
"Well, Sid" (the family name for myself which I hate)" I think you are a great talker and maybe you can think a little bit, too. That book you mention I read when I was seventeen. My brother Ern got it from the Sutherland circulating library at The School of Arts, Sutherland on the other side of the railway line. I forget the street......."
"Yes mum. but anyway what do you think of the book?" I asked impatiently.
"It is as it is named, an Outline. If you want to go further read "The Story of Civilization" by Will Durant.
"Sure, mum, I will sometime."
...............................................................
I was pretty busy for the next few years chasing girls, trying to impress them with my brilliance (but not my money since I lived mostly hand to mouth).
Finally in my early old age in the local public library I noticed a volume "Our Oriental Heritage" by Will Durant.
I read it and the other volumes of the set and found my mum had been right, (again).
This set of volumes was the most fascinating I have ever read, even more so than "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons.
My mum was in her nineties when my unforgiving family last sent me word of her.
I learned a lot from my mum in our many talks. Pity I did not act on the advice I was given.
I was convinced I knew more than my mum, who left school at age fourteen to go to work to help feed her family in the Great Depression.
Some half dozen years ago, one of my sons, emerging from teen-age chaos, told me "You don't understand how it is these days, dad. It is not like back in the middle ages when you were young."
Ric Williams.
.......................................................................................................................
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