I am a creature of habit. One of those habits is that I read a few pages of a book before I go to sleep. Last night was no exception. I was near the end of the chapter when Mrs Youcantbeserious, pulling the blanket up as far as her ear, voiced her customary last few words of the night: ‘Will you soon be turning off that light …?’
With that, I sat bolt upright in the bed. ‘What’s wrong?’ asked my soulmate, with more than a hint of worry in her voice. ‘NOTHING’, I replied … ‘but you had better get ready to party!’ In fairness to her, she now placed the palm of her dainty little home-manicured hand on my forehead.
I had come across a line referring to the ‘Roaring Twenties’ of a hundred years ago – and it hit me like the shock of an electric fence. History will repeat itself: We are set for the mother of all parties! Before this year is out we shall all be turned into carefree ‘flappers!’
History does repeat itself – as this column warned you before the Celtic Tiger crashed in 2007.
At the start of the 1920’s, the population was trying to forget the horrors of what they had lived through during WW1. Like now, the people (most of them) had more disposable income than ever before. A great sense of devil-may-care enveloped young and old. The ladies became rather daring and …. Well, the chapies were always daring. Skimpy dresses, gloves, a headband (feather optional), cigarette in a long holder and they all went wild. Whiskey-swilling men in black, dyed-sleek-backed hair, waistcoats and a petulance for ‘dares’ roamed the jazz-clubs.
But it wasn’t just these chaps, or the ‘dangerously thin’ dames of the day who let it all hang out. Oh no, when the ‘bit of brass’ struck up for the Charleston, it was open season for all sorts of shapes and sizes on the dance floor. The people had had enough of being miserable – and now; just as birds got the irrepressible calling to migrate; the people, who had suffered enough … answered the call to party!
Have you felt any similarities yet? Again, remember the thing about history repeating itself?
Personal savings are at record highs. People have more money lying around that they don’t know what to do with. We couldn’t spend it during the soul-destroying lockdown of the past year. You want to know (you probably know already) where this money is destined for when the country opens up this summer? We are all going to party!!
It has been tough: Not being able to visit family, meet friends, attend concerts, go to the pub, meet someone for lunch, attend a match … all the things we took for granted were taken away. If you are like me, you wonder now, why you didn’t do more visits and meet more friends, when we could. . Then, when we did meet someone we knew on the street, we took a step back instead of forward.
It is not in our nature to take a step back from a friend. Worst feeling of all is where a friend has lost a loved one and you can’t give them a hug. Oh yes, dear reader, when this awful ‘war’ is over, we must give ourselves the pass to party as never before!
And to those selfish individuals who believed that the restrictions of the past year were for other people; well, I hope you feel the same uneasiness as did the draft-dodgers after the other war.
A long time ago, I was on a Brian Treacy Management course; run superbly by Athlone’s Kevin Fahy. One day the theme was how to deal with ‘The Monday Morning Feeling’ and avoid the proven lack of productivity associated with Mondays. When it came to my turn to speak, I said: ‘The best thing about working seven days is that you have no Monday morning feeling!’
Depressingly, during this awful pandemic, we have had a Monday morning feeling every day. Every day is the same and there is no beginning or end to the week. But all bad things must come to an end – same as the good times. These 7-Day Monday morning blues are near an end. Hope is in the air now. Help is on the way – and you can start practicing your moves for this glorious rerun of ‘The Roaring Twenties!’
The vaccine roll-out is going to be much better and faster than current projections. By mid-summer we can all expect to be ‘roaring!’
Any of you know where a guy can get Charleston lessons?
Don’t Forget
We learn some things from prosperity – but we learn many more from adversity.
