Happy National Day the fireworks generation… the 1980s

Every year we celebrate national day we evaluate what we have politically and economically achieved and what we forget to look into is how we as a nation have stood together in good and bad times and succeeded in protecting our country against our enemies.

When we were children and those who are a few years younger or older than I am will relate to what I will now write about. To make this easier I will gladly say I am 44 and by my generation I mean those who remember how we used to celebrate national day.

A teapot, snacks and we get into dad’s car and drive to the locations where fireworks were held. We would get stuck in traffic and never grumble because what was awaiting us was the fun of the year, the national songs and our fireworks.

Life was simple and we weren’t the Starbucks generation. We were the tea and the car drive , all the way to the fireworks generation.

Life was simple and our dreams were simple. National day was associated to fireworks and songs about Sheikh Isa may his soul rest in peace. I still remember this song that had our beloved kings name in it “Ya BuHamad Sheikh el balad..teslam lena ebladena” and its translation is the “The Father of Hamad is the ruler of our country, God bless our country.”

We learnt to love Sheikh Isa and Hamad’s name was also associated to him, and we after him had already loved our future king.

He was the son of the modest down to earth leader we had known as children and our hearts were all open to his son, our new leader.

And this just reminded me of how modesty in its own form is greatness.

If you are from my generation, you would also remember Adhari Park, Andalus Garden and the Water Park.These were the places we used to go to during our national day breaks. There was no such thing as three days break in Paris. We loved and enjoyed our own country and our love for it made us wait for this day to come.

You might also remember when the first fast food chains were opened. Wimpy opened before Dairy Queen and many of our birthday parties were held in DQ.

You would also remember the first time Baskin Robbins was opened with its 31, 32, or 33 flavours. And this was all in the early 1980s.To us, Wimpy followed by Baskin were the best treats ever.Thats how we celebrated national day.

We had nothing else. We only had those, yet life was beautiful.

Today we and our children have much more and I will not say life was more beautiful then.

No, life is of course more beautiful now if we have kept our country and our families together and we did.

We succeeded.

So today when we celebrate our national day we should celebrate the fact that we kept it all together. We were always one family and we will always remain to be that. THAT is our accomplishment.