At a conference in June 1980 we celebrated the neutrino reaching what is, from my frame of reference, early middle age. Our celebrations were a little premature because the real birthday was only in December, but this is an accuracy which in this area of physics is surely acceptable. This article is an account of the early history of the neutrino, but the reader has to accept that I am not a trained historian, and what I have to say will not be a scholarly analysis. My qualification is rather that I am one of the relics of old times, someone who was around at the birth of the neutrino. So I shall write largely about things which I remember; but I cannot rely on memory entirely. Memory is deceptive, and whenever one looks back to the original papers, things are a little different from what one thought. Sometimes reading your own writings or letters of 50 years ago can give unexpected surprises. So my remarks will be about what I remember, but with occasional help or correction from the literature.