MY thanks to Ray Marshall of Esh Winning (HAS, Apr 3) for saving me the job of critiquing Julia Breen’s misinformed piece on Baby Boomers.

Like Mr Marshall I work in engineering and have similar first-hand experience of boom or bust, being laid off due to shortage of work, having to relocate to find work, suffered mortgage interest rates going through the roof etc.

Those old halcyon days! In an earlier piece Julia Breen tells the story of a lonely old gentleman she passes by in her mad dash on the school run. It was another depressing tale of rushing around, perceived hardship, feeling hard done to and seemingly jealous that she didn’t have the time on her hands to spend a few minutes talking with the old gentleman.

It occurred to me had Julia lifted herself out of bed five minutes earlier, taken the rush out of the morning, she would have had five minutes to speak with the old gentleman.

Had she mentioned the article she wanted to write I feel sure he would have shared the benefit of his experience living through that perceived halcyon time.

That five minutes could have been viewed as research for an article on Baby Boomers. It would also have meant sharing time with someone who might have been completely alone and spoken to no one that day.

It might have been an opportunity to take her journalism from guesswork and fiction to fact.

Michael McLaren, Witton-le-Wear