Dear LPG, 

I was conversing with my two young grandsons one day not so long ago, and we talked about the old man who lives next door to them. They call their next-door neighbour Uncle Alan, and their parents get on very well, so the children often get involved in little conversations over the garden wall during the warmer months.

My grandsons told me some of the stories they had been told about things that had happened a long time ago and one of them said something that got me thinking. He told me one such story before commenting on this neighbour being old. I mentioned that I was pretty old, too, but they both agreed that that was different. 
After that, our conversation just continued.

But what was said got me thinking about my childhood and the older people I used to look up to.   

Do you remember what you thought of the older people in your life when you were young? The pensioners next door or the older man who lived down the road who always took the time to say hello as you passed by. Did you take the time to say hello back when he talked or smile at you if he smiled at you first? And if he caught you doing something wrong, would you have been worried that he would tell you off before telling your parents, who would give you another scolding? 

My grandchildren live relatively locally, which I know is becoming a rarity as our children find less expensive houses and more fulfilling jobs miles away once they leave home, and that means that I see quite a lot of those youngsters who have decided that even though I am old, I am ‘different’. 

But this world has changed so much over the past 60 years, as have I. Children and their parents are so worried about safety that they don’t even notice the people they pass on the streets. Men, in particular, can so easily be labelled as having ulterior motives for interacting with children and respect for any valuable knowledge we could pass on to a child or gain from one is accepted as inconsequential. 

I cannot help but wonder what my neighbour’s children see when they see me as I walk down the road on a school day morning.

My opinion is very general, but I wonder if I am the only LPG reader who thinks this way?

IB, Catford 

…and LPG adds some information on today’s celebration…

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