READER Willian Hill in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, takes us down memory lane as he recalls the Govan street market in its fifties heyday when a confectionary stall-holder would shout out to passing female shoppers “Hurry hurry, Mrs Murray” or “Two for a fiver, Mrs McIver.” Says William: “He would also shout at women of his age who passed his stall, ‘Ah remember you – you used to go to the Barrowland dancing’. Most women had a quiet smile to themselves and walked on until one woman stopped, looked him up and down, and said, ‘Aye that’s right, ah remember you. I see you’re still wearing the same jaiket’.

“For once the stallholder was speechless.”

STILL, it can be a tricky thing, shopping. Paul McElhone in Beckenham tells us about his wife and daughter going shopping for a pair of boots for the daughter who found a pair she liked but not in her size. The assistant said she would go and check the stockroom as a new delivery had just arrived, and the boots “were very popular”.

At that his daughter’s face fell and she asked her mother: “Does that mean they are common?”

A FINAL swipe at tawse tales as Kenny Hardie in Stewarton recalls: “In the early sixties my history teacher at Bellarmine was the redoubtable Bob Crampsey who went on of course to become a sports commentator. After a class test he summoned all the failures, me included, to the front of the class to be suitably belted. When he reached me, all too quickly it seemed, he looked at my paper and said 'Hardie, this is so bad it can't possibly be your fault, go and sit down.'

“I would have preferred the belt.”

LOOKING out your summer clothes yet? As one reader tells us: “After all the holiday and winter eating I've done this year, I'm happy to report that my flip flops still fit.”

GERRY Braiden wrote in The Herald last week of the difficulties Labour faced in finding candidates for the General election. David Halliday claims to have the inside gen on a Labour selection meeting. Says David: “ That Labour selection process in full: ‘Ahem. No more refenrdums!’ ‘You're in. Do you have a brother or sister?’"

JOHN Ellwood in Lossiemouth wonders if he somehow missed the second independence referendum as although he was only flying from Inverness to Bristol last week he nevertheless received a text from EasyJet telling him: “We have been advised that Bristol Airport may experience long queues at immigration due to construction work. Please allow extra time to proceed through immigration."

TALKING of politics, it seems that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has a tough task to win the General Election. On-line betting firm Betway has Theresa May at 20/1 on to be the next Prime Minister. As a Betway spokesman said: "To put that into perspective, the odds suggest that Theresa May has a significantly better chance of being the next Prime Minister than Prince Charles does of being the next British monarch, at 1/5."