The way it used to be.

Stephen was going to stay with his grandad for the summer holidays, he had been looking

forward to going to his grandads ever since his grandad phoned last week to arrange

everything with his mum.
stephen had everything ready to go his bags were all packed he had his psp his football and

a colouring book, when he was waiting for his grandad stephen sat at the livingroom window

looking out to see if he could see his grandad and everytime a car turned into the street he

jumped cause he thought it was his grandad but it wasn't, then about five minute's later he

saw his grandads car pull into the street he ran out the door like a whipit nearly knocking

over the plant stand in the hallway he ran down the drive and ran along the path and when he

got near his grandads car he stopped and waved at his grandad and then he ran along side his

grandads car untill they reached the house, stephen opend the door to the car and said "hiya

grandad" .
When they got to his grandads house they got out and unpacked the car stephen put his bags

in the spare room and went into the kitchen to see his grandad cause he knew his grandad was

going to make something to eat cause it was a long way from his house to his grandads and

stephen was hungry.
They both had finished their dinner and stephen asked his grandad "what was it like when you

were my age?" his grandad thought for a minute then he said well its much like it is today

the only thing thats different is all this technology your psp and your mobile for instance

we never had anthing like that it was either using the post to send someone a letter or you

could phone them from a landline but not everyone had a phone in the house,i remember that

mrs watson was the only one in the street that had a house phone and your great granny wilma

used to go to mrs watson's to make all her phone calls until we got one a couple of years

later.you like playing football don"t you stephen asked his grandad and stephen said "i do i

love playing football grandad" well i used to play football aswell stephen we used to go

round the corner to the park to play football. "was the ball like this one?" stephen asked

"no " said grandad "it was made out of pigs intestine and brown leather" the ball you have

is made out of plastic, i think your ball is better than the one i used to have and your

football boots are better too "why?" asked stephen, they are better designed than the ones

in my day your ones have been desinged to direct the ball where you want it to go and they

are more styleish i have a picture of me wearing my boots would you like to see it "yes"

said stephen "sit there a minute and i will get the photo album out" said grandad.
Grandad went into the livingroom to get the photo album and came back into the kitchen and

opend the photo album on the page where he was wearing his football boots and put it infront

of stephen. stephen looked at the picture for about a minute then he turned round to his

grandad and said "i look like you in that picture" and his grandad said "no you look like

me" and they both laughed then his grandad said "can you see that they are different than

your's" "yes" said stephen they look like my dads workie boots "they do dont they" said

grandad.
"Was the food the same when you were my age?" asked stephen "no it was allot different

because we had rationing "what's rationing?" said stephen, has anyone told you there has

been two world wars "no" said stephen, well there has been two world wars and i grew up just

at the end of world war two and everyone in the country had a ration book so they could buy

things to eat because there was not enough food to go round everyone. "what kind of food did

you eat grandad?" said stephen, we ate mince and tatties,stovies,tins of ham and tatties

that kind of thing "can we have mince and tatties for dinner tomorrow" said stephen "yes we

can" said grandad but now it is time for your bed so go and get ready for bed "ok" said

stephen. when stephen was on his way out of the kitchen he turned round and said "can you

tell me more tomorrow grandad" "yes i will now go and get your jammies on and get into bed

and i will be up in a minute to tuck you in" said grandad "ok" said stephen and off he went

up the stairs. just as stephen left the kitchen his grandad was sitting thinking about when

he was a boy and thought to himself i am glad my grandson is interested in the good old

days.