Hi-de-Hi

Did anyone see that reality show set in a holiday camp last night ("Wakey Wakey Campers")? Generally I don't watch such things unless they have a genuine historical element (I did watch a bit of "the 1900 house" for instance) but I'm staying in a hotel in Edinburgh for work this week and had nothing else to do, having just arrived last night.

Anyway, I had one of those real moments where something you've always "known" intellectually slaps you around the face (something like Python's fish slapping dance...). Perhaps because I wasn't around in 1900 or 1940 but I do vaguely remember a trip to a holiday camp in the late 60s when I was young (about 5 or 6 I guess), so I had some sense of connection to the experience.

What happened in the programme, apart from the usual complaints about facilities (no TV or other nice amenities etc), was that everyone under about 50 freaked out totally over the regimented living arrangements (woken up at 8 am, breakfast together, every activity together, kids to bed at 9, one bar closes at 10.30, adults in chalets by 10.45 ... no men in women's chalets, you're not allowed to opt out of the day-time activities, etc). And I mean really freaked out, they literally could not handle being controlled to that degree.

Of course it's often the case with social change that when it's occurring progressively over a decade, a generation or longer, you don't notice at the time (you're too close up to be aware); and of course people's personal attitudes evolve to stay aligned with the social climate. The one merit of these shows is that they concertina the time so that people are really confronted with "how it was", undiluted.

And the change here is the fundamental increase in the level of individual freedom that people expect and receive as a matter of course, in how they spend their time and in how they interact with others.

As I said above, this is sort of obvious, but I found my response to it this time was much more visceral - simply because the reference point being looked at was in my lifetime, and something I could relate to.

Scary...