The scene:

A bar, anywhere, any time.

The characters:

Two elderly gents, gazing dismally into half-empty beer glasses.

The Conversation:

Vladimir: 'Ah, the ... [insert item of your own choice] ... isn't like it it used to be in the Good Old Days'

Estragon: 'In another twenty years, "now" will have become the Good Old Days. But we won't know it, because we'll be gone.'


Historical Note:

At family gatherings when I was a little lad, my parents and their siblings used to reminisce endlessly about how great things were in the days 'before the war'. Later, when I read about the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism, and the drift to global disaster, I wondered how the heck Mom and Pop could have enjoyed the 1930s so much. The answer was, of course, because that was when they were young.

One thing most young people have always needed is a place to hang out - to gossip and flirt with each other - to stop being somebody else's son or daughter and become somebody in their own right. For many kids today the only place is a park bench or a bus shelter. For some it's a youth club (often run by religious evangelists or political activists seeking new recruits). And for some it's the local cafe - or if they look old enough, the local bar.

A long, long time ago, for quite a few young people, the place to hang out was a folk club. But eventually musical tastes changed, new social opportunities appeared, and most of the audience moved on, leaving the performers to entertain each other (and argue endlessly about who were the true believers and who were the heretics).

So here we are, older but not much wiser, wasting valuable time and energy reminiscing about the good old days (which in truth weren't always as good as we remember them).   Meanwhile, we are living in what will probably become the good old days of tomorrow - let's enjoy them while we still can.

Wassail!