Are children happy the way we were?
I ALWAYS enjoy reading Mervyn Edwards’ feature articles on local history in the Weekend Sentinel.
Mr Edwards’ subject this weekend was the former Workshops for the Blind in City Road, Fenton. I remember them very well when I was a child, as we lived nearby.
As young children, we were allowed by the caretaker to picnic on the front lawns but had to take any litter away when we went. “Don’t leave any crusts,” he used to say. Yes, he obviously knew that bread crusts were the bane of many children’s lives.
Those were the days! Playing on Fenton ‘rec’ and then having a few jam sandwiches with a bottle of water to share on the lawns of the Workshops for the Blind. A real luxury, as most children lived in terraced houses with an enclosed back yard and an outside toilet at the bottom. No quilted toilet paper then, usually an old Sentinel newspaper cut into squares and hung on a nail. The pages were longer then, so the newspaper not only provided news and education but help with our lavatory requirements too. Well worth the money!
Health and safety was not what it is now. If you fell over on the red ash gravel on the ‘rec’, your knees would be bloody but you just carried on playing. If you were stung by nettles, a dock leaf was the cure.
As children, we used to go out in a group for hours, often arriving back home at teatime, in grubby clothes but happy.
I often think that although children of today have far more toys and better food than we did, they are not happier.
Strong friendships were forged in our childhoods that often lasted a lifetime.
I wonder if the same can be said of childhood in today’s society?
S CLARKE DRESDEN