Each generation has its own school days stories | BBC Radio Solent's Alun Newman

Even better, when you explain your past to children and you get to watch their faces and listen to their reaction.

My last encounter with this involved some ‘clay’ from my first (junior) school.

For reasons I can’t fathom, my parents had saved one of my creations from when I was seven years old and dropped it off at my house as they were having a clear out.

It was a clay ashtray.

I remember being asked to make it and also remember the teacher walking around explaining that we needed to have somewhere for the cigarette to rest and be able to collect the ash.

We need to make an item that looked nice but was also designed well.

I didn’t have a dad that smoked and remember being quite disappointed.

The teacher reassured me that it could be used for keys and change when dad got home from work.

Thankfully my granddad smoked and I thought at least it can get a run out when they stay over the summer. Unbelievable now.

As I held this memory jogging piece of art, I explained to my children that we seemed to always be making ashtrays when I was young.

It’s quite brilliant to watch the kids' faces as they try to fathom whether you’re joking or thinking: ‘Is he really that old?’

Could smoking have been so popular and acceptable that children really made ashtrays? Yes, it was.

Another story that blew their minds was that when we did PE, we would high jump over the pole and onto the SAND.

Sand, no crash-mat!

As you can imagine, no records were broken for the Fosbury flop at our school.

We talked about this on the radio show and one lady managed the ‘you were lucky!’ line and explained that her school didn’t have sand – they just set the high jump up on the playground and asphalt was the cushion of choice.

That’ll toughen you up. Nothing ages you faster than explaining your life at school to someone who’s at school. We come from an almost unimaginable past where there were no computers, no internet, no interactive white boards and certainly no super-thick, comfy, spine-saving crash-mats.

Every generation has their stories. Their own unique reference points fixed in the past. Today’s generation has got its obvious current challenge.

They’ve been thrown a moment in their school life that’s never been seen or experienced by any child in education for the last 100 years.

It is something quite unique to this moment in time. However, if we’re to go on past events that the world's been through, they’ll make it.

Not only will they make it, they’ll be even more resilient and able to cope with change.

When places close or plans change, they’ll be able to say to their children ‘this is nothing’ and then spin their stories. This tale of school life will be better than any pottery ashtray or a high jump sand pit.

Either that or they’ll tell stories of a broadband speed that was only 50 megabits per-second.

The children listening will gasp and say: ‘Daddy, mummy how did you cope?’ We managed, we just had to wait for some screens to load.

It was a tough time.

You can keep your cold showers

Do you want to ‘Win the Day!’?

I pinched this line from a motivation coach who was on our radio show.I can’t stand this stuff normally but this caught my ear and has stayed with me. Do you want to wake up, increase your circulation, boost weight loss and release endorphins?‘How?’ I hear you cry, ‘how can all that be done in one easy move?’ I’ll tell you – start every morning with a Freezing Cold Shower. It’s the new, latest (been around for ages), sensation, for those people looking to have the edge.Some people online even insist that no-one uses the shower before them as it ruins the super-cold experience with pipes that have had a chance to warm slightly.Others online (mostly American) tells stories of how this strategy has enabled them to do more, achieve more and make more money!!I thought I’d give it a go. Who doesn’t want all that potential unlocked every morning? Shower on and take the plunge.My experience: I lost. There was no winning. It’s freezing and you get out the shower like you've been forced to go swimming in the sea in October.Also, let your other half know or they’ll come running up the stairs thinking you’re being stung.In future, I will ‘win the day’ with a coffee.