My father used to tell stories of his time growing up in Midleton when he was a young lad in the 1930s and ’40s.

The family lived in a small, terraced house in cramped conditions with two adults and eight children fighting for space. That was normal then. Large families were common in those days, and money was tight, so parents had to make do with what they had.

In spite of having little, though, many people of that generation have told me over the years they had happy childhoods.

That makes perfect sense because I can remember the 1960s when the magic of television first came to our house, and how central heating changed our lives with instant heat, but I never felt deprived before that because up to then I didn’t know any different.

We wore trousers, long-sleeved shirts and leather shoes for every occasion, whether it was for school, playing football in the street, or climbing trees. We didn’t have fancy trainers and t-shirts, but we didn’t care, we were happy with what we had.

Every house had fireplaces back then and most had them in every room. When I was sick during the winter and confined to bed on a cold day, my mother would light a fire in the bedroom, which was the essence of comfort.

Today’s kids will never experience that because you’d struggle to find a fireplace in a modern house these days, never mind in a bedroom. Health and safety regulations would probably outlaw them anyway.

I can’t........

© Evening Echo