My grandparents always tell me that our lives are better now than when we were young, and that I should enjoy and appreciate my life instead of complaining. It is true that, in most ways, our lives are much better than our grandparents did when they were young.

In the past, gifts for grandparents would definitely not have been plasma televisions or mobile phones. No sir. In the words of my grandfather, “in my day, we were lucky to have a plate of baked beans on the dinner table.”

When my grandparents got married, they moved into a tiny one-bedroom, and I repeat, a room flat, with a divan box spring in the corner, and no running water or electricity. They cooked with a single gas hob and could barely afford to feed themselves. And when their son was born, times got so tough that they often had to eat blackberries for dinner!

In my grandparents’ day, you were lucky if you had a sink in your house. Many people collected water from private wells or public pumps. Without a doubt, washing machines and dishwashers would have been extremely useful and incredibly practical as birthday gifts for grandmothers or birthday gifts for grandfathers, so they would have spent more time resting and less time doing dishes and clothes.

As for debit and credit cards, my grandparents didn’t use ATM cards until they were in their 60s, imagine that! Instead, they would always walk into the bank and do business face to face with the bank clerk, who even knew them by name.

My grandparents often joke that they don’t know why people refer to those times as “the good old days” because there wasn’t much good in them. Grandpa told me a story about a young man who committed suicide due to lack of food and money.

Of course, I treasure these stories and the time I spend with my grandparents. When I find myself drooling over a new appliance, I think of the stories of my grandmother ransacking cupboards for a missing “twopence” piece, which she would have paid for a can of soup for her son’s dinner. It puts life in perspective.

People managed to get by without modern conveniences. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a criticism of today’s modern conveniences, because quite frankly, many of them make life so much more enjoyable. On the other hand, perhaps we should remember that most of these are luxuries, not needs, despite what the media and peer pressure would have us believe otherwise.

These days, we are able to devote more time and money to our hobbies, which was unheard of in our grandparents’ time. My grandfather would have given anything to immerse himself in his favorite book, but he just couldn’t afford it, they were short of money.

As I was walking with my grandmother down the local main street, we passed a tanning bed salon and saw a girl, her skin glowing a reddish-orange hue, strutting out of the salon. Gran whispered to me, “Why pay the earth to cook your skin when the good Lord shines a sun on your head that does the same thing for free?” That made me laugh.

I can safely say that Kindles, GPS devices, Xboxes, Wiis, etc. will certainly not be on my shopping list for gifts for grandpa or birthday gifts for grandma. I think there is definitely something to be said for personalized gifts for grandparents.

Very recently, I gave my grandfather a personalized soccer book for his 80th birthday. The cover featured his name in gold and there was a personal message on the inside cover. This particular book contained newspaper reports on the history of the Sunderland football team over the past century.

When visiting him a week later, the grandfather was already halfway through. As I’m not much of a football fan, I couldn’t share my grandfather’s excitement when he went off on a tangent about all the things he had read about, like the famous League and Cup victories, the stars, past and present, etc. etc. etc. But what he moved me was when he said that this was one of the best gifts that he had ever received, forever. That made me very happy.