Alan Calvert recalls: LIFE was great in the 1960s - there were no computers and Elvis was frequently top of the hit parade.

Some things do not change - the King still rules more than 27 years after his death with a re-issue of his old hits - but for many of us it seemed to be a much less-complicated period of our lives.

In recalling just how wonderful things were in the olden days, it comes as something of a shock to realise that 1966 - the year I started work on the Bolton Evening News - has as much relevance to some of my younger colleagues as the Victorian era or the Battle of Trafalgar.

When I first arrived in Bolton from Blackpool (over Belmont in a 1959 Morris Minor) I never felt that parking this mean, green machine was any sort of problem or expense.

Most Boltonians believe that happy state of affairs is no longer the case.

In those far-off days, when Bolton Council ran the bus, water, police and fire services, there was a sense that local, accountable politicians were more relevant to ordinary lives.

Why, you could even get a bus outside Bolton Town Hall because Victoria Square had not been created in its current form.

Also, I think they probably still had conductors.

On the sporting front, England won the football World Cup in 1966 and have failed to do so since - how much proof do you want that things were much better then?

And there were no computers.

Working at our previous offices in Mealhouse Lane had a delicious feel to it because the mighty presses roared in the basement and typewriters made a satisfying rattle when they were pounded on the metal desks in the reporters' room.

Socially, Bolton town centre had a far wider range of attractions for the ordinary person, compared with the bar-heavy scene which forms the town's current "evening economy".

Many of the town's cinemas had closed by the 1960s, but it was still possible to take in a film of the day at the Odeon, ABC, Lido or Queen's without the need to drive to an out-of-town multiplex.

Sporting entertainment could be obtained by walking along Manchester Road to the Bolton Wanderers ground at Burnden Park or the Bolton Greyhound Racing Company's track at Raikes Park.

Or you could turn up Higher Bridge Street to the Wryton Stadium and watch professional wrestling, if that sort of thing interested you.

The club scene in those days was rather different than it is now and often featured talented live acts at venues such as the Beachcomber and the Casino, Aspin and Empress Clubs.

But times change and these attractions - all very popular once - no longer exist to entertain Boltonians of all ages.

And, significantly, there were no computers to run our lives.

Frank Elson recalls: ONE of my lasting memories from the 1950s is having to get out of bed to walk on freezing linoleum.

This morning, I stood on fitted carpet.

And the double glazing and central heating timer ensured that there was no ice on the inside of the window, as there often was when I was a lad.

I used to run errands for my mum to the local Co-op. We had to order bread in advance and there were two kinds of cheese - white crumbly or "cooking".

My first car, in the 1960s, had no windscreen washers and no rear washer-wiper. Today, all cars have washers on the front (fair enough, it is the law) and, if it has a need for a rear wash-wipe there's one on there.

If I wanted to buy bread (my wife bakes ours) the shelves at my local supermarket have dozens of types and I gave up counting at 17 different types of cheese.

One of my earliest memories is of all the neighbours and family crowding into our living room to gaze at a six-inch square black and white fuzzy picture of the Queen being crowned.

Tonight, I can choose 150 channels to watch in colour, in digital, cinema, widescreen or square format and stereo sound.

If there is nothing that I want to watch, I also have a choice of DVD or videos.

Failing all that, I can listen to the radio or play a CD or a cassette tape.

The old radiogram my parents had is now just a bad memory (as is Frankie Vaughn's "Tower of Strength").

To be honest, looking back, I really cannot think of any aspect of life that has not improved in the past 50 years.

My friends and I did not hang around on street corners - there were no street corners, takeaways or off-licences in the country - but I'm sure we were just as obnoxious revving our motorbike engines and playing our transistor radios too loudly on village greens.

When we went to the town as young teenagers, I'm sure we must have been just as threatening as we walked the "monkey run" in our combat jackets, donkey jackets, skin-tight ice-blue jeans and Cuban-heeled boots.

We were young and cheerful and caused no harm, just like the majority of young people today. Preferring the company of your own age does not mean you are a gang.

A year or two later, I began a record collection that ended with an entire wall of my office at home covered with shelves full of vinyl. Now, come on, who can honestly say that a vinyl record was better than today's CD?

Apart from the increase in sound quality (at last I can hear Sly Stone's metronome), they take up a lot less space!

Now I am not about to turn my entire music collection into MP3s any time soon - that change has come too late for me - but the MP3 collection on my computer grows steadily and gives me another source of music.

I could, of course, play MP3 files through my mobile telephone, if I could be bothered to read the manual to find out how it works.

There were none of those around for the first 30 years of my life.

Nor could my parents have owned what I think is possibly the most useful modern gadget I have - my PDA (personal digital assistant, or organiser).

Kitchens have electric carving knives, kettles and coffee machines; bathrooms have showers, coloured tiles and hot water virtually on demand; at work there are hands-free speaker-phones, water coolers and air-conditioning.

These things actually improve the quality of life.

From basics like fitted carpets to luxury electronic gadgetry, I believe modern life is a huge improvement on my childhood.