Give the young a break – It really wasn’t like this in your day, says Christa Ackroyd

Takeaways were the occasional portion of fish and chips. A visit to the cinema on a Saturday morning cost sixpence, where shockingly I tried my first cigarette bought easily at the age of 14 in a pack of five. We were only allowed a handful of sweets from the penny tray and the pop man came once a week when we had one bottle of pop between the two of us. And freedom was our way of life.

And we never did anything wrong did we ? Well apart from putting treacle on door handles for Mischief Night as we played ‘knockadoor’ run much to the weary sighs from neighbours as we got up to mischief and didn’t even get a handful of sweets for our efforts. What’s more at this time of year we went from door to door ‘progging’ (what did you call it ?) begging for any spare wood for the bonfire meaning we were out in the dark alone for most of this month and next, without our parents and, according to at least one elderly neighbour, running amok.

I hadn’t even thought of charity apart from being told to eat my tea because there were unknown people starving somewhere in the world where I hadn’t been and was unlikely to go. I didn’t raise money for Children in Need, because quite frankly I didn’t know there were children in need. I and my friends just lived in our own little bubble, while elsewhere in Bradford children caught rickets or polio while we suffered mumps and German measles. There were no mobile phones to tell us what we should look like, only Jackie magazine to show us the way. There was no dark secret places to explore on the world wide web, no predatory paedophiles pretending to be our friend, well apart from the flasher who appeared one day down All Alone Road, which as it’s name suggests was a place we were forbidden to go. But did. We were far from perfect, whatever we think. And no better or worse than the young people of today.

Let’s start with this playing out business and walking to school. No cars to clog up the roads every day, delaying those of us who have to get somewhere and get there quick. Let’s be honest we were lucky to have one car, let alone two, one for the school run. After school my mother never knew where we were. Were we playing on the nearby cricket field ? Had we set off to catch sticklebacks at some local beauty spot near to where we live ? Well firstly that local beauty spot is now probably filled with houses unless you are brought up in the countryside. And would you dare let any young person out alone? Of course you wouldn’t. We hadn’t even heard the word grooming. We hadn’t heard of drugs. As for alcohol, come on admit it we all experimented with bottle of QC sherry or cider. You didn’t ? Well I did. And I remember being violently sick and then being grounded with a lecture from my policeman dad that not only was it not clever it was also against the law. As for sitting in front of the telly. We did. If not why do we all remember Watch with Mother, Crackerjack, Come White Horses, Follyfoot, Magpie, Blue Peter, Mr Ed and The Monkeys and Monty Python ? Because we watched them, even though my dad warned me I would get square eyes from the amount of telly. In other words, we may have got our viewing in different ways but it was just as important then as it was now to be part of the gang. Only being in a gang had very different connotations then.

Today’s young people have had it tough these past few years. The pandemic has been horrific. They have missed two vital years of schooling, not just learning lessons but learning to grow by being with their friends. They face a world where going to university is expected of them, only they have to pay a fortune. The thought of owning their own home is for many an impossible dream. I had my first aged 19 and got money from the council to put a bathroom in. The alternative was renting which was cheap and affordable and if you had a family you could apply for a council house, remember those ?

Young people are by and large kind and considerate. Today hundreds of them will queue to help a young girl named Emily from Leeds find a bone marrow donor to save her life. She is 21. They will be asked to do so at Leeds United’s home game and they will know about it through social media where more than a hundred of them have already answered the call. But they will also have seen dark things on their phones, things that they shouldn’t see. And as the recent inquest into the tragic case of Molly Russell showed, things that are all too easily accessible. She was just 14 when she took her own life after reading about suicide and self harm on Instagram. A far cry from what you and I were thinking about as teenagers.

This week has seen World Homeless Day and as many of you know I help out with the Leeds Homeless Street Angels. Every Thursday night we feed more than a hundred rough sleepers but also support a shocking 265 people or families in their own homes who sadly haven’t enough to eat or are recovering addicts. But let me tell you this I am the oldest one of a bunch of people who care. The vast majority who sign up as volunteers are young people. I had no idea there was such a thing as homelessness, mental health issues or addiction at their age, even though I saw the injured serviceman with one leg selling matches on the streets of Bradford or the woman shouting at passers by at the entrance to the markets. I didn’t even consider they may need my help, though because quite frankly I was too in love with David Cassidy and going to town every Saturday with my friends to even notice.

Today’s young people not only notice they do something about it. So give them a break and recognise that the vast majority of them will grow into fine young adults, who will no doubt in years to come look back and say, it wasn’t like that in my day. Because my friends such is life.