[recycled sixtie]

Interesting backgrounds. Bill D you have my sympathy. I cannot imagine anything so bad as that.
Yes I had a good upbringing. My mother was tough, outspoken but fair. My father was a Lancaster pilot in WW2. He did two tours of operations but at the end of the war he suffered delayed shock reaction aka a nervous breakdown. I was born in 1946 so was not aware of anything different but my older sister did. I went to boarding school at age nine and continued until I was sixteen. My father bought a garage at the end of WW2. He sold mostly British Leyland cars. Morris, Austin and employed several mechanics. My mother was the bookkeeper. I loved those days.

When I was about thirteen he sold the business and we moved to southern England. He semi retired and my mother went to work as a nurse and later joined Welcome Wagon. My dad died of cancer age 52. He was a heavy smoker. My mother lived till age 94 and never remarried. Yes I loved my upbringing despite everything.

Cheers, Guy.