My boyhood was very different from Nana's childhood, we lived in a big port and the docks were our stamping ground, there were ships from all over the world. They would come close to where we lived. They took on coal to raise the steam in their boilers. There were no diesel powered ships in those days. Crews of all nations passed up our street from the docks, big brawny Kroo boys from the West African boats, Lascars from Bombay, turban'd men from Karachi and always Chinese of the big "Blue Funnel" ships that went to China, Malays off the Henderson Line and also all the races of Europe, plenty of life exciting for small boys. We would go on the ships nobody seemed to mind in those days. In the long hot summer days, all the boys never the girls (they would not be allowed on the docks) we would go swimming in the docks, the bobbies turned a blind eye towards us, but it was not all like that. The countryside was not far away and we would be in the hedgerows like boys the world over collecting birds eggs. I used to have quite a collection. We had no cars of course, biked and walked all over the place. A couple of miles and we were on the Beach and a swim in the Irish sea, and watched the great trans-Atlantic liners coming in, or on their way out to New York or Montreal. I think it was a good place for a boy. The school we went to was quite modern then, it had just been built. I think I liked school. It had 3 departments, boys, girls and infants. Saturday nights everybody went to the market, all the stalls were lit by naphtha flares in those days, the stallholders shouting their wares, crowds of people, small boys like myself dodging in and out and wondering what to buy with my Saturday penny. Yes I think I had a happy boyhood. Also I went to summer camps in Wales in the summer and lived in tents and had a great time in the hills. Yes Chris there was lots for a boy fifty years ago.