Quote Originally Posted by J R Hartley View Post
I never wanted for anything as a kid, from my parents or my grand parents, never known poverty. My old man was out of work for a few years when I was 9/10 but we never went hungry or cold. My mother would cook 4 means at 4 different times for the 4 of us.

We moved out of the Gurnos but I still went to school there and grew up there because that’s where my mates lived.

I did however go to school with people who had absolutely **** all. It’s only now as an adult with more of a social conscience that I look back on some kids and realise how bad some had it.

I remember some kids in my class were only 5 or 6 and walking half a mile to school on their own. No breakfast inside them. Dinner ticket for free meal was probably the only meal they had all day. What chance have people like that got?
Yup, i was speaking to someone who taught on the gurnos and she said that social services would come to the school she was teaching in and take the kids into care such was the condition some of them were living in, although to counter that, she said that the vast majority were loving caring parents who gave their kids everything that they needed. Same where i went to school, some really poor families with all of the social problems that went with it. I never quite understood it as a child, although as you mature and have your own kids you realise how bad it was for some families. I was brought up on estates, Ely, Llanedeyrn, i look back now and it's unbelievable how many of the lads i grew up with are dead now due to addiction, crime, suicide etc. we all have choices, but being poor and not having a strong support network around you must be detrimental towards life chances, health and longevity.