At my age you tend not to pay much attention to your own birthday; it’s old hat, you might say. And if it wasn’t for the constant clamour for cream buns in the office I probably wouldn’t have remembered that on Friday it was my turn to fork out for some goodies for the staff. Never really understood why those having the birthday should treat everyone else…. but  along I go, unquestioningly, with office protocol. Somewhat masochistically I looked back at a copy of The Countryman covering the date of my birth. There was an advertisement for a new Austin A70 Hereford: ‘A family car with fine lines which cruises at 65mph’. It cost £989 including purchase tax, while the average minimum wage for an agricultural labourer that year was £13 9s for a 47-hour week. The Countryman cost 2s 6d - I’ll leave you to guess the year.