[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes, it IS a different world.......I was 11 years old and I was left to make sure that my 3 brothers and myself got off to school.....clean and with breakfast inside us. Both of my parents worked......we had very little in the way of luxuries. Then when my Mum had another baby I still had to get the boys ready for school and then on MY way to school I used to drop the baby off.....(not literally) with a lady who lived near us......she had a baby of her own who was similar in age, so she looked after my baby brother and her own child and my Mum used to pay her. My Mum went back to work six weeks after the birth of her babies. By the time I was 16 there were 7 of us. It was a very hard up-bringing, but it taught me about responsibility.(And child care) I did sometimes feel a little 'hard done by'...... but I also realised that without both my mothers and fathers wage we would not have food to eat.