Should courting couples be chaperoned?

THE interesting idea of re-introducing chaperones brought to mind my various experiences in the early Sixties in Spain. On holiday in Mallorca in 1959, I met my future wife, who was also on holiday there. After corresponding for two years, I went to Madrid where she lived and we got engaged. Quite late one night, her father was taken ill and was attended to by a nurse, but a prescription had to be collected urgently from the all-night pharmacy nearby. I volunteered to go there with my fiancee — but her brother was promptly woken up to accompany us on the short walk involved. Times have changed indeed. There were various other incidents of a similar nature, but I generally sidestepped the pitfalls and we will soon celebrate 55 years of marriage. I don’t regret having had to toe the line during those now-distant days of our courtship.

BRIAN EADON, Alicante, Spain. THE idea of bringing back chaperones (Letters) is yet another example of older people giving today’s youngsters a bad press — and at 50, I’m no youngster. We’re told of the ‘immorality’ of today’s youth, which I take to mean pre-marital sex, but that isn’t everyone’s idea of immorality. To me, ‘morality’ means having a good and kind character, trying to put others before yourself and not hurting another person wilfully. As far as I’m concerned, there’s been no generation like the young people of today who demonstrate these qualities abundantly.

LIZ VAILE, Sutton, Surrey. WITH his idea of manners, Geoffrey Lindley (Letters) must be really ancient. Chaperones went out of fashion with crinolines and bustles.

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