When John de Bruyne was born in 1945, circumcision was all the rage – but now it’s got the chop
Oldies like me born in the 1940s often reflect on changes they have seen. Soft lavatory paper was an improvement on the hard Bronco, but you cannot fold it over a comb to make a harmonica. As for duvets, which we first met on European visits, we were sure they would never catch on at home. Nail polish is almost universal now, whereas the headmistress of my sister’s school in Cambridge said that red nail polish was the first step towards prostitution. King George V called Wallis Simpson ‘a divorced American with painted nails’. The attitude to smoking has utterly changed. And something else that seems to have gone out of fashion in my lifetime is circumcision. I was born at home in 1945. It was before the National Health Service. The gynaecologist arrived in a Bentley and did the delivery himself. My mother asked if he would circumcise me...
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