[Doug]

People forget the mischief and reputations that they had as children. I never liked Gatty and it was before my time, but if you read some of the comments that I have made in these reflective threads you will see I and others who will be nameless where never angles. Pig stealing, cow and chicken kidnapping, wilful damage, gang raids was amongst our childhood trades. I was a child, foolish and without fear of consequence. The only time we would come to heel is when PC Ball caught us and hit us hard, then our victims would kick our backsides if they got us, and our greatest fear our parents. But it would only last a few days and we would be at it again. I am not proud of my childhood actions, but I was a child seeing the world through a child’s eyes. I remember street fights between the big boy’s; the sky would be thick with sticks and stones at times. Times haven’t really change, we have. The media is much more intuitive, much keener to report the things that we as a society would want to keep hidden back then. What I don’t understand is when we were a kids we had nothing, no money, no high value toys, video games, TVs, record players. We had each other, pram wheels and cardboard boxes.