SO Helen Mead (October 8) thinks we are wasting our time remembering the past. Being over 90 years of age, I can remember years before she was born. I have lived through two great wars, also the time of great unemployment in the 1920-30s.

Still I have good times to remember; we did not have a lot of money but we managed and seemed to be more content. My schooldays were spent at Knaresborough, where I was born. From 1922-26, I was a pupil at King James Grammar School, where we respected our teachers, were proud to wear the uniform and when doing so had the honour of the school on our shoulders.

Moving to York in 1937 and eventually having four children, I was never worried if they wandered away from the area, never thought of their being abducted or abused. Not so today, as children always play near home where they are more or less safe.

Helen speaks of bringing back The Forsyth Saga as being a retrograde step. Bring back The Duchess of Duke Street and Upstairs Downstairs too - all worth watching again. Thank goodness we still see Morecambe and Wise, as present-day comedy is just rubbish.

L M Bramfitt,

Lawnswood Drive, York.

Updated: 10:32 Monday, October 15, 2001