My piece the other week about younger people being unable to grasp the hard times endured by some members of earlier generations struck a chord with readers.

Eileen Waldron, for instance, phoned to tell me about her childhood. Born 77 years ago in Manningham, she was one of nine brothers and sisters brought up in a two-bedroom back-to-back.

Dad worked five 12-hour night shifts a week in a mill and cash was tight. The youngsters used to help out by chopping up orange boxes and selling the firewood for twopence a bundle, or making tab rugs.

The tragedy of that generation, though, wasn't that so many people lived through hard times. Hard times, if survived, strengthen you. It's that so much potential was wasted because there wasn't the money to enable them to have the education they deserved.

Eileen passed her scholarship to go to grammar school but wasn't able to take up the place. Instead, she had to leave school at 14 and go to work in Lister's Mill.

Then there were the other families, slightly better-placed, who managed to fund their children through grammar school but weren't able to let them follow it through, to university. They needed them to be out and earning at 16, contributing to the family budget.

Today's students, unhappy because increasingly they're having to borrow the money to see them through their further education rather than having it given to them, perhaps don't appreciate how lucky they are.

Another reader in reflective mood this week is Mr G L Holmes, of Odsal. His 83rd birthday the other day prompted him to think about the changes his generation has seen.

"We've witnessed the most eventful, inventive, progressive century ever known, with floods of achievements," he writes. "From the arrival of electricity came the washing machines, radio, television and computers of the push-button age. The age of the automobile took hansom cabs and other forms of horse-drawn transport off the highways. There has been air transportation, and man travelling in space. It is doubtful that the 21st century could equal the 20th for achievements.

"Heaven forbid that it should be a century of decline - though I certainly will not be around to witness it."

Heaven forbid indeed, Mr Holmes. Some of us, the junior seniors, hope to witness at least a couple of decades of the next century. I think most of us would settle for seeing a bit less technological change but rather better behaviour by the human race.

I Don't Believe It!

Here's a grumble passed on to me by Mike Priestley from one of his readers. It's from Mr J B Webster, of Northowram, whose particular gripe is about gimmicky spelling on television - specifically, the use of a lower case (small) letter to start the names on the lists of credits instead of a capital letter.

"This latest gimmick is personally very annoying to me," says Mr Webster. "In the wider context, when there is so much publicity from the Government regarding the raising of standards in schools and elsewhere, perhaps they should be starting with television companies. As a former Grange Grammar School pupil of the 1940s, I would not have survived long at school with such appalling misuse of the English language."

Quite right, Mr Webster. We'd have been in big trouble, wouldn't we? The use of little letters for people's names or to start a sentence is a pure gimmick. It's not like the new acceptance of the split infinitive, something that would never have been allowed when we were lads.

I suppose you could call that part of the evolution of the language, like being allowed to start a sentence with a conjunction. But calling people peter piper or susan small isn't on, is it?

Mr Webster also has a go at the Marks & Spencer television ad which talks about "Menswhere, Ladieswhere, Childrenswhere, Homewhere..."

He says: "Of course, I realise this is just a sales gimmick but surely well-paid professionals could devise a sales advert which was correctly spelled and still gave the message to the general public."

And he adds: "Needless to say, these examples of incorrect use of the English language could confuse children even more and certainly will do nothing to raise their standards."

They're not children, Mr Webster. In advertising-speak they're kidz. And wot's more, they eat beanz.

If you have a gripe about anything, drop a line to me, Hector Mildew, c/o Newsroom, T&A, Hall Ings, Bradford BD1 1JR, email me or leave any messages for me with Mike Priestley on (44) 0 1274 729511.

Yours Expectantly,

Hector Mildew

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