This weekend and next the of the 1940's etc Severn Valley Railway have been putting on one of their regular and very successful 1940's weekends with re-enactors, music of the period and of course loads of steam trains.They are always well attended not just by those who lived in that era but also by many of the younger generations and although very sanitised you like to think they give an impression of what life was like all those years ago
However this year I have noticed many posts on Social Media from younger attendees saying how great the fashions were and how "Cool" the soldiers looked in their uniforms and more than one saying how much they would have liked to have lived at that time,this got me wondering do they realise .the reason for so many military re-enactors at these events is that we were fighting for our very existence
Maybe I am misreading the posts but it may be a worry that a whole generation despite things like Armed Forces day are forgetting or never being told that the 1940's was a time of mass death and destruction and even when that was over a period of hardship with rationing and the efforts of reconstruction the norm.
The fashions may have been cool but life at that time was most definately not
