My, how the world has changed. When I started school at 5 years of age in 1945 I walked 3 miles to school every day, and even longer back. That’s because I’d often do the return trip via the adjacent Boulcott and Hutt golf courses and best of all, down to the Hutt river, a veritable wonderland for a 5 year old. Then I’d drift back home, oblivious of the time, hours later and cop punishment. That changed when a new primary school was built only about a mile away when I was 8.
In fairness it was a very different world, notably in the almost total absence of traffic. People only began to own cars in the mid to late 1960s. For example, I was 10 when I had my first ever ride in a car, to the end of the street and back. Prior to that I’d had two rides in a truck at 8 years of age.
Over my eight plus decades I’ve witnessed enormous changes on so many fronts, not always for the better.
