more interesting, sociable and better paid work is, sadly, that their
children are not being fed properly (i.e. their diets are not satisfactory).
In 1985 a survey was carried out on over four thousand children
throughout England and Wales to try and find out how well they were
fed. The results were alarming:
free milk and cheap meals. Now the price of meals is increasing
continuously. Moreover, free milk is no longer provided since the
government believes that the nation's children are properly fed, and that
children's dietary standards are not the business of the government
anyway. According to the results of the survey, however, it has become
obvious that school plays a very important part in a child's diet. Before
the Second World War, the mother supplied the family's nourishment
(i.e. the food that is needed to grow and remain healthy). Now the
responsibility is divided between home and school.
A third of the working force in England are women, two-thirds of
them married, half with school-age children. Many have long distances
to travel to work and are not prepared to spend hours working in their
home in the evening or at the weekend. These facts mean that the
approach to food and its preparation has changed a lot since the war.
During the war many women were required to work in industry and
weren't able to spend much time cooking for their children. Children's
diets were therefore supplemented outside the home by various welfare
agencies, including the schools. In other words, additional food was
provided to improve children's diets.
The situation really has not changed very much. More and more
women are going out to work, and are either just not at home when
their children need to be fed, or are short of time to prepare proper
guides walking around, and garbage all over the place. In the Arctic no
one's around. There's no such thing as a guide because no one's ever
been there." Although several of his friends have died while mountain
climbing, Rosenfeld said, "I know that it's risky. But I sit in my law
office and tell myself that after 20 years of climbing I'm still here."
The novelty of the sport is what attracted Susan Tripp, a 35-year-old
Californian lawyer, to parachute jumping. "I wanted to do something
new and unusual. It's not something many people do," Susan said.
That is also one of the reasons John Wolcott, a 49-year-old printer from
Edison, New Jersey, likes to go hot-air ballooning. "It makes me a
hero," he said. At parties, he simply introduces ballooning into the
conversation, and he becomes the most popular personality of the party
for at least an hour.
