Back to the future: a family story

IN my father’s time, he could buy a house, drive a Standard 10 car, join the golf club, have a family fortnight in Duncannon (Co Wexford) each year, feed and educate us children – all on a single salary commensurate to the lower middle class.

As the austere post-war gave way to the rock-‘n’-roll 1950s, a VW Beetle took the place of the old Standard and Duncannon was upgraded to Tramore, though the biggest single expense remained the weekly food bill.

His wife did motherly things.