Bank accounts

I opened my first bank account when I was ten days old. I still have the receipt. Obviously it wasn't me who marched into the Post Office in Croxley Green and deposited a tenner, I presume it was a parent, but I thank them for starting me on the savings path early. They also bought me my first Premium Bond at the same time, just the £1 but it would repay the investment with a £50 prize thirty years later so even more thanks for that. My Post Office Savings Bank Book arrived shortly afterwards. It had a blue cover and several pages within, all chopped at the top so my name and address on the inside cover was always legible. Each double page had space for eight transactions - deposits on the left and withdrawals on the right - with eight separate spaces for the obligatory date stamp. Everything came with datestamps in those days, rotated every morning by the clerk and pressed firmly onto an inky pad before jabbing down onto the page. So began a series of deposits, dutifully transcribed.…