Time and Age, Where Does It Go?

Everyone says time passes a lot faster as you get older, but does it?

I can’t remember how quickly time passed when I was a kid. If it passed slower back then, was it because I was less busy? I always seemed busy. Time does seem to pass rather quickly today if I am busy or not, so maybe they are right. But, why?

I heard this bloke on the radio some time back who had a theory. Basically, he was saying that time passed much more slowly when you were a child because you lived in the moment. Whereas as an adult will plan days, weeks, months and often years ahead and so ‘the moment’ is shorter, I suppose that this makes sense.

When I am on holiday the days go slow but the whole holiday seems to pass quickly. Television has to be part of the problem, surely? When I was a kid on the farm I played outside all day. This usually ended up with me rescuing an imaginary girlfriend from the Indians, they always tied her to the same tree so I didn’t need Poirot to find her. Freud would love that one wouldn’t he?

The ideas for these games all came from books, in my family you read every night or you were read to. On the day the television arrived I was called in to watch, after about five minutes the novelty wore off and I was back outside. Skip six years and I was hooked, Man From Uncle, Laramie, The Last of the Mohicans, Champion the Wonder horse, Flicka and the list goes on. Your day became less of a day and more of a space in time you had to get through until your favourite TV programme came on.

I just hope it all slows down again when I retire, maybe I’ll buy a tricycle and tie Mrs Countryboy to a tree 😉