Cabbages and Kings / booksmango (ePub)

A prerequisite to the development of any and every child is a secure, loving relationship with both their mother and father, but not every child is so blessed. Cabbages and Kings documents my experiences after the untimely death of my father, which profoundly affected the course of my life, and follows the consequences of a fatherless household during my formative years.

Set against a background of Melbourne in the Fifties and into the Sixties, this was a period overshadowed by the Cold War, the Roman Catholic Church, and the White Australia policy amongst epidemics of lung cancer and polio myelitis. The emergence of the new sensation of the teenager shook the nation's social structure to its foundations, while the coming of television connected Australia to the rest of the planet.

Following the emotional blackmail and psychological abuse of my childhood, I emerged as a teenage boy burdened with insecurities and anxieties aggravating the transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond. Typical effects of a father's absence occurred when I dropped out of school and my life deteriorated to one clouded by a lack of self-esteem and alcohol abuse.

The intervening years have seen incredible change for which the strict control of world economies during the two world wars of the first half of the century must be acknowledged. Massive advances in technology, medicine, and communications have been realized along with the wonder of the satellites that orbit the earth. We've also witnessed the proliferation of education, and the evolution of home entertainment culminating in the marvel of today's modern world.

Now advancing age stimulates reflection on my life, misgivings, and speculation about the rewards and detriments of a future where children, such as those of my granddaughter's "Generation Z", will take cyberspace for granted in a world beset by perpetually-developing technology throughout a society predicted to be fraught with a disproportionate number of one parent families.