It's more a case of there beig fewer things nowadays that everyone knows. I mean, you're younger than I am and still know the story, but a lot of folk younger than us might not.

People don't read much any more. Parents don't read to their kids as much as they used to. In schools, they have to cater to a growing diversty of cultural backgrounds, so many of our traditional tales and stories have been lost. The only place they survive is in Disney DVDs!

You and I knew Snow White, Cinderela, Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood from home and school.

I know (which you might not) about how Horatius kept the bridge, the wreck of the Hesperus, Lochinvar, the Highwayman and the Green Eye of the Little Yellow God. My poor old head contains a grab-bag of Shakespeare quotes and references that younger people are hard-put to recognise but which an older generation also knows

Hate to say it, Susie, but we're getting old, me and thee!