The book is about Australia of the 1960s and 1970s (which is a bit before Parade's time), but you don't have to have grown up during that period to grasp the idea that Glover is trying to get across: the past is a funny place.

Parade doesn't think of himself as very old - he was born at the tail end of the period that Glover is describing - and yet some aspects of Parade's childhood now seem scarcely believable.

It was a time, for example, of film cameras, televisions with only two stations (and houses with only one television), cars (and homes) without air-conditioning and landlines as the only means of communication.

(Modern texters have no idea how lucky they are; Parade and others of his generation had to ring and talk to their romantic interest's mum or dad first.) 

Music came on cassettes, going out to dinner (or going overseas on holidays) was a luxury enjoyed by only a tiny minority, information was stored in encyclopaedias (not the internet) and everyone paid for everything in cash.

It sounds like something from the dark ages, doesn't it? Yet it was only 30 or so years ago.

Goodness knows what Parade's childhood will look like in another couple of decades. 

IN OTHER NEWS IN BATHURST:

Location named for Central Tablelands Collection Facility

Top teacher credits lessons learnt at Bathurst High

Childcare centre for Eglinton gets the green light

AND on the subject of technological advances, Parade wants to give a tip of the hat to the Sydney restaurateur who announced this week that he would be banning devices from his establishment.

The howls that followed his gutsy move proved only how wedded we have become to the blinking, beeping, flashing squares of metal that we carry around in our pocket.

If we can't manage to sit with loved ones for an hour or so without distracting ourselves with a text or a dive into the worldwide web, Parade has to wonder what we've become.

And now for a phone ban at the pub.