Strange, But True.

[BIAD]

I guess we had very different experiences in school overall though...

Here in the North-East of England during the sixties, there was a real 'working-class' mentality that strongly urged many
to battle through schooling and then acquire a menial job that would basically recycle a level of living one had just been
reared in.

A few realised that further education was the path to a better lifestyle, but the kids that I'd grown-up with merely accepted
this was their destiny, a dead-end job for the men, maybe 'pin-money' part-time employment for a married woman whilst
raising a family. But of course, not all.
I must admit that in my little corner of the world, the community spirit was better than it is today.

It's ironic that it took a spell of incarceration to educate me in regards of self-discipline and the way that the game of life is really
played. For many of the young boys I saw in the detention-centre, they failed to grasp this and probably continued down the route
of crime.

So much as changed in regards of schooling and the steep drop of being without money due to unemployment has certainly improved
from the days when a JobSeekers office used to be called 'The Employment Exchange'!
................................................

I used to watch with awe at the family-contestants in the TV game show 'Ask The Family'... they were so 'mentally- healthy' and miles
away from my own lifestyle at the time!