Sackful of game

“The piece about Roger’s Game Shop in Union Street does bring to mind what often went on during the Second World War,” says Innes Duffus of Dundee.

“The late George Linton and I were members of two rifle clubs. Early in the war, around the age of 13, we ‘borrowed’ his cousin’s motor cycle which was stored in the family garage. At weekends we would ride out into the country in the early morning and shoot our way home.

“Monday morning, on our way to school, would find us in Roger’s with a haversack full of game. No one asked any questions and, as I recall, we got 6d for a rabbit, 1/6d- for a hare, 6/- for a goose and so on.

“The other remarkable thing was that no one ever stopped these two youngsters on a bike running all over Tayside and Perthshire, far too young to have a licence, on an uninsured and unlicensed motor cycle and with no way of having petrol coupons.

“To make matters worse, our parents didn’t suggest that we were doing anything wrong or tried to stop us. This may have had something to do with them getting the larder stocked during rationing and no one else appeared to be in the least bit bothered. What George’s cousin thought on his return from service I fail to recall. Happy days.”

“A strong west wind stirs the reeds at Forfar Loch,” says reader John Crichton of Forfar.