My memory of the past was on different planet!

I TAKE issue with your correspondent Terry Duncan over the issue of “suffering families”.

He recounts in his recent letter experiences of some 70 years ago as if family holidays abroad, car outings to the country and journeys by rail from Penzance to Thurso(!) were commonplace in his childhood.

Some childhood! My own was in the Bradford of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. No fancy holidays for us, any of us. Survival was the aim during the war (70 years ago), this followed the dreadful 30s and the dreary post-war years of austerity and currency regulation. Scout camps twice yearly were eagerly awaited

Like most of my contemporaries, my first car came in the sixties financed by a barely affordable bank loan and the luxury of a week at Butlins or seaside became the norm. We enjoyed it all and appreciated it all, unlike a large number of today’s supposedly suffering families. Oh dear, no Disneyworld! What a deprivation!

Imagine how much of our country’s wealth goes to the good old US of A to fund holidays in Florida. Sorry Mr Duncan, but I wasn’t on the same planet as you.