There were a regular few 'safe houses' Jo, in our large group of friends.
There were three brothers, whose mother had been widowed - as is the way when you're young I have no idea what had happened to the father or when. The eldest was about 5 years older than me, the middle one a year older, and the youngest about 5 years younger.
On Sundays in winter theirs was the house for Sunday tea, she would do a whole wonderful table full of bread and butter, home-cooked ham, tongue, cheese, jam, lemon curd, crumpets and tea cakes, and sponge cakes, fruit cake and always a big trifle too. There would usually be about a dozen of us for that
In summer there was a family with a rather large house. We would go and learn to play croquet, play tennis, and then literally have a strawberry tea on the lawn
Another had a swimming pool, where in hot summers we would go after closing time for skinny-dipping and then brandy in the summerhouse
The other half living yes, but the funny thing is, all those who lived like that were the ones who would come to our little council house and sit chatting to my mum and dad till 3 in the morning