The not very PC world of Topsy and Tim

WHAT KATI DID NEXT: Ah, the good old days. Things were much better then. At first glance anyway.

Only a few television channels, what bliss. Here we are again going round and round the hundreds of channels we have so thoughtfully been given by Mr Satellite and there is not one thing on that takes our fancy.

People looked out for their neighbours, we don’t know ours but we dropped in a card as they have just had a baby. The sound insulation between our houses isn’t that great.

Then there was smoking in restaurants.

I was a smoker for years, regret every penny spent, and boy what an inconsiderate one I was.

I remember lighting up in restaurants at the drop of a hat.

I was thinking of all this as I was reading my lad a bedtime story.

I have saved quite a few of my old children’s books, out of sentimental value, so was overjoyed when we found the box in the garage.

Out they all came smelling faintly of the 70s, incredibly musty, and off we went, the two of us into a reverie of my childhood. I was quickly brought up rather short.

Does anyone remember Topsy and Tim? Well Topsy and Tim, it appears, were not cared for incredibly well by their parents as every weekend it seemed they were palmed off to Uncle Frank and his glamorous wife.

They had yachts and motorbikes and most times T & T would catch them “at it.”

One picture has Frank with his hand on a very provocative area in the galley. On the yacht I mean.

Then the next weekend, they are off looking at “Gypsys” in ragged trousers, stopping off at truckers cafes where kindly Uncle Frank sparks up a “smoke” where they eat three bags of crisps, eight biscuits and three sugary drinks between them before being shoved in a strangers HGV cab to press some knobs and buttons.

At T&T’s birthday party, they don’t like the presents, all they eat is sugary stuff and they end up in a fist fight where one child ends up in tears.

Where were the parents? Wouldn’t get books like that these days. However we grew up all right. Nowt wrong with us. Or at least not at first glance.