Hey Janice, "My dad and I didn't go in for deep and meaningful conversations..."
I was the same with my Dad, until (back in 1985) I decided to ask him about his past, to start my Family Research....and the flood gates opened!! I was astonished, to say the least

But your comment:"I doubt his childhood was nothing to have fond memories of. There wasn't much money around in those dark days."

I, for one, KNOW that money doesn't make memories. Hearing regulars talking about happy memories in Hebburn, from playing marbles along the gutter, to sneaking across railway lines, or riding on coal trucks, etc NONE of them involved money at all. As you said, there wasn't much around.

But there's an old saying "What you never had, you never miss"