BLASTS FROM THE PAST

I wasn’t the only one splashing luncheon vouchers on everything but my daily sandwich.

Mike Lenthall in Wateringbury, Kent, emails: “Early on in my career I was working in High Holborn in central London and I can clearly recall the senior secretary handing out the LVS.

“I saved them up for a couple of months so that colleagues and I could have a meal out

“My salary back in the 1960s was about £800 per annum and without the LVS I would not have been able to afford to eat there.” Toni Jones, who lives in Sheering, Essex, says LVS paid for her family’s fish suppers. She writes: “When I was a child in the 1950s, my dad worked in central London and used to get luncheon vouchers as part of his salary, but would take sandwiches to work. “Every week he saved the vouchers until Friday, and we’d get our tea from the fish and chip shop where we lived in Epping. It was the only time my mum didn’t have to cook, so she loved it.

“We also had a bar of chocolate each. Cadbury’s used to make bars of chocolate for 6 pence (old money) with different fillings. My mum had marzipan, dad had peppermint, my sister had strawberry cream and I had caramel. I loved Friday nights!”

I felt the same way about Sunday nights, Toni. My dad used to send me across to the local pub’s off licence to get a bottle of Corona Cream Soda and a bar of Fry’s 5 Centre Chocolate. No idea what happened to Fry’s but Corona has had a lot of bad press recently for some reason.