The Christmas/New Year holiday season often has us reminiscing by way of the lens, through which we saw life in the first place where we lived.
Some people came from families where they moved houses a bit, and so their early memories extended to more than one neighbourhood.
I was most fortunate to have lived in the one home, until I was 17. My suburb and the immediate suburbs in my local catchment made up my world and in fairness, from the eyes of a very young person, this tiny radius around the home, in which I lived, was to me, anyhow, my home town.
The amazing musician Joe Jackson released a song called exactly that, My Home Town, in 1986.
I borrow, if I may, some of these amazing lyrics from this song:
Of all the stupid things, I could have thought this was the worst. I started to believe that I was born at 17... the letters and the broken verse stayed hidden at the bottom draw. They'd always been, but we never leave the past behind, we just accumulate, so sometimes when the music stops, I seem to hear a distant sound, of waves and seagulls, football crowds and church bells... Sometimes I just wanna go back to my hometown, though I know it will never be the same... cause it's been so long and I'm wondering if it's still there.
Much of the wording here makes up so much of my psyche and it stays buried a lot of the time, because I have to live in the present.
While submerged 'my home town' still manages to manifest in the present. It is there and it is never far away. Do you know how? The many things I learnt in my old neighbourhood - whether from family neighbours, friends, acquaintances and schools, gave me a level of decency, pride and respect and great role models, which nobody could take away from me.
With this in mind, I must acknowledge that not all people were as fortunate as me. The lens through which many people saw their early years was completely different to mine. There have always been various levels of poverty, which many of us who grew up in nice neighbourhoods, could never have imagined.
Psychologists have told us for many decades us that those early years could really shape us as people.
The Christmas and New Year period was always a time to reflect on those who did not have what we had and have suffered through various degrees of drug and alcohol addiction and abuse and homelessness.
It is true, however, that many people who came from those backgrounds, have left all of that behind and have made something of their lives, because they did not want a future where they resided in same sort neighbourhood, where they started their lives.
There are all sorts of articles, which talk about the influence of early neighbourhoods: how someone learnt to become an entrepreneur because they grew up broke in a rich neighbourhood. There is another story about how your early neighbourhood sets you up for what you will achieve as an adult.
That is a very good point. How your early life can affect what happens later. I do not think that all people have the same capacity to be as successful as others - no matter where they started life. A good neighbourhood, in early life, however, can push a person to use as much of their capacity as they can.
There is a message here and that message should go out to policy makers, governments, educators and local councils. The message should be clear. In all suburbs, catchments and towns, we need to remove all the negative things which hold so many people back in poorer areas. We need to remove all the drug and alcohol problems. We need to remove all the cultures of violence. We need to teach respect, decency, ethics, pride in who we are and what we want to do with our lives. We need to reteach love for our immediate and extended families. We need to extend this to good-will for all people for all times.
Schools, local councils, churches, community groups and all other good outlets need to force these things onto everyone young and old. In 100 years time, everyone should look at 'My home town' as something to be revered  ― Joseph Walz