Your letter from Pat Stevenson (11 January) highlighted my long-held suspicion that our memories of political events in our childhood are dependent on the political atmosphere in which we are raised.
With a seven-year head start on your correspondent, I can remember (aged three) Hugh Gaitskell’s election to lead Labour, the Suez crisis (four), Labour’s rejection of unilateralism (eight) and Harold Macmillan’s “winds of change” speech in 1960.
Before my retirement, my colleagues of a similar age had no such memories. But they didn’t grow up in a working-class home with a father steeped in local Labour party history, who was more likely to discuss Rab Butler or the allocation of tax liabilities in the impending budget than he was to condemn pop singers who mumbled their lyrics.
Of course, it could all be genetic, this retention of early memories (yes, Pat Stevenson and I are siblings).
Anne Cruise
Swindon, Wiltshire
• I remember clearly the day King George VI died. My sixth birthday fell on 6 February 1952, and I was excited as this was my first birthday at infant school. But we were not allowed to have playtime that day out of respect. Not been a lover of the royals since.
Sally Bunyan
Billericay, Essex
• An abiding memory for this pensioner is the ecstatic cheering of my parents when the results of the 1964 election came in. Similarly for my sons in 1997 and hopefully my grandchildren one day.
Bob Epton
Brigg, Lincolnshire
• Pat Stevenson is proud that she remembers various historic events from her 1960s childhood. It used to be said that if you remember the 60s then you weren’t there.
Martin Cooper
Bromley, London
