No exotic fruit but home produce was delicious

I WAS interested to see the photographs of The Hayes as it was in days of old, but there was no mention of when the open market was held on the site.

I started work in 1942 in the CWS Wholesale Depot in St Mary Street and “town” was very different then.

There was no exotic fruit because of the war, just home produce but who wanted bananas and oranges when you could buy English apples – delicious Worcester Pearmains, Laxton’s Superb and Cox’s Orange Pippins? Ugly and misshapen, yes, but oh the flavour.

Plenty of plums and rhubarb, all obtainable in their seasons.

Vegetables came from West Wales or Cornwall and I can’t remember any shortages, only onions.

Does anyone remember the huge eating plum from Pershore, only three or four to the pound?

I remember one stallholder asking me if I wanted three or four plums when I asked for a pound as it was difficult to judge the weight.

I have such happy memories of town as it used to be, but it would be nice if there were some pictures.

The fruit market moved to Mill Lane where it stayed for several years, before going to two sites off Bridge Street.

By that time fruit from abroad was available but nothing could compare with the home produce available at The Hayes open market during the 1940s.

Mrs Valerie Berriman

Ely, Cardiff

Double standards of the Loony Left

WHILE attacking the statues of a 300-year-old character (Edward Colston) and others perhaps these millennial protesters may think for once instead of copying everything that occurs in the USA and reflect on some other statues in this country. Once they’ve wrecked all the historic slave trader statues perhaps they might want to pay attention and dump a few other statues in the dock. How about Gandhi in Cardiff Bay? He once said: “The Indian man is infinitely superior to the black African.” This is a racist statement by any stretch of the imagination. Doesn’t this qualify him for a dip in the dock?

It won’t happen because if it wasn’t for double standards then the Loony Left would have no standards at all.

David Jones

Canton, Cardiff

Shocking figures from the USA

I WAS just looking at the figures for the number of police officers killed while at work in the USA (it stated shot).

There are various figures: some say 38 officers were killed in 2019, some figures differ, and in 2018, 47 officers were killed.

Deputy Sheriff, Mr Sandeep Dhalwal, was shot in the back of the head, during a traffic stop. He made history, in 2015, when he was allowed to wear his turban as part of his uniform.

A total of 1,004 people were killed in 2019 by the police, according to the figures released.

The US imprisons more people than anybody, they have 5% of the world’s population but house 25% of prisoners. In 2005, 77 % re-offended after being released.

In 2018, 1,654,282, arrests were made for drug offences.

I don’t hear of anybody protesting about the number of police killed in the US or the number of guns that are in the country, and the amount of drugs, where you have millions of dollars in drugs money.

What a recipe for disaster. Richard Shurey Penygraig, Tonypandy

Lockdown policing – so what changed?

THE police have certainly changed their tune when it comes to monitoring lockdown.

Who remembers that drone footage of a lone dog walker in the Derbyshire countryside and its threatening Big Brother vibe?

Fast forward to last weekend and the police stand by as thousands cram into central London and stick two fingers up to the social distancing guidelines. It’s almost as if the police are happy to go for easy targets.

B Owen

Bridgend

Stick to important issues please

WHAT is wrong with Cardiff council having 14 more 5G masts across the city?

I’m a council taxpayer and the council can’t even get the grass cut and repair broken pavements. I rest my case.

Mr M Carroll Trowbridge, Cardiff

Thanks for helping after my fall in town

I WOULD like to thank the paramedics who brought an ambulance to my aid on May 30 when I fell on my face in Holton Road, Barry, at about midday.

They cleaned me up and gave me a thorough examination and were kind enough to take me home afterwards.

They and the others who helped me were so kind.

The fall was caused by an out-of -place paving slab on Barry’s treacherous pavements.

Many thanks again to the NHS. Carole Wills

Barry

The fruit market moved to Mill Lane where it stayed for several years... Mrs Valerie Berriman Ely

What happened to social distancing?

AT a time when we are all told to practise safe-distancing, why was a large group of people not only allowed to gather in Bute Park but also walk through the city?

They blocked the pavements for other pedestrians, they made no effort to keep any reasonable distance between themselves or other pedestrians and many did not wear face masks.

The attendant police made no effort to separate the demonstrators and they could have stayed in the park and diminished the risks to all the other people out and practising safe-distancing.

Where is the logic in the First Minister’s advice to keep social distancing and meet only in small

groups, when there was a crowd of several hundred in a continuous line going along St Mary Street?

Of course, I could not object to their message of racial equality. But we are in a country where businesses are in dire straits, most shops and restaurants are closed for our safety, and schools and other places are only opening with severe restrictions.

Derek Misell Canton, Cardiff