LETTER: How would millenials cope without the white-haired generation?

Settling down after a stressful day, TV on, mug of wet and warm to hand, plate of biscuits to demolish, I get the frantic call "Dad, the kitchen’s flooded, what do I do?”

Now, let’s analyse this statement.

1) Daughter’s house, where she lives with her partner and our grandchildren is now doing a good impression of Lake Windermere, both are totally ignorant as to the location of the water stop valve.

2) She asks her old dad, and she assumes that I know the answer.

Not a bad assumption, as my, the much maligned baby boomer generation, have been about since God's dog was a pup, and have accumulated the wisdom of age, and yet again it’s the old man, who has the knowledge to save the day.

Us older folk are much maligned and ridiculed for our lack of speed on the roads, dithering at the check-out, and forgetfulness.

However, it’s the white-haired brigade to the fore when the kids are in trouble, I mean, who else can change a blown fuse, wire up a new three-pin plug, fit a shelf, and the 1,001 other small tasks that elude the dexterity, and experience of their offspring, and it’s always granddad and nana's job to babysit, and who else would put the washing machine at their disposal when theirs breaks down.

Without the bus pass generation, our young families throughout the land would be in chaos, who else has a shed that would put Halfords, Screw Fix, and Arkwright's corner shop to shame, decades of collecting, what was once useless junk, now pays dividends, that jubilee clip, or ‘O’ ring, crucial to the installation of the new washing machine, retired from its dusty corner of dad’s shed.

It’s not only the items squirreled away awaiting their moment of glory, it’s the years of accumulated experience and knowledge of what tools are needed, and how to effect the repair, something today’s young iPod smart phone Facebook Twitter users, haven't a clue about.

We might be a bit slow, ignorant of the current music scene (personally, it all sounds like somebody going over Niagara falls in a gas stove) and all appear beige, but think on, when the fuses blow, and the pipes burst, who you gonna call.........?

Tony Levy

Wednesfield