Nostalgia isn't what it use to be!

I was chatting with some other old fogies in the pub the other night about the things that we have seen, done, etc that our children haven't.

The old favourite, of course, was stepping into white dog shit. (For my younger readers, dogs use to chew on real animals bones - which use to make them produce white, dry poo; rather than the wet brown stuff that comes from canned dog food).

Breath patterns on window panes on a cold and frosty morning! They use to look like ferns or paisley dress patterns - extremely beautiful - but no longer seen in these days of central heating, double glazing and lagging.

The cuckoo, sings in April, the cuckoo sings in May, the cuckoo sings for half of June and then it flies away. I haven't heard a cuckoo sing in north Wales for the past 30 years - my kids have never heard the cuckoo's song!

The other thing that our kids don't have to experience is the doctor's party.

When a child contracted Chickenpox, German Measles, Measles, Mumps etc, the local doctor use to organise a tea party for all the kids in that age group, so that they all caught the illness at the same time and the epidemic was dealt with quickly.

The first time a kid had an invite to a doctor's party it was exiting, something to look forward to. But it resulted in having to suffer a horrible illness. Some school friends would be left severely disabled, some might die. Nobody looked forward to a second invite to the doctor's party.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for a parent to send a kid to such a party.

Thankfully, even when I was a kid, my parents didn't have to worry about the scourges of their childhood - TB and Polio. I was vaccinated against them.

My kids will probably never see white dog poo, frosted windows or ever hear the cuckoo herald the beginning of spring. If they mix in the right circles they may be invited to a GP's party - but not in order to catch a contagious illness!

Unfortunately they might experience the sadness of seeing their school buddies becoming disabled or dieing from those old childhood illnesses that should be preventable. Gareth Aubury, quite rightly, puts the blame for this where it truly belongs - on politicians past and present putting their personal, unfounded, family fears into the public domain.