SO our friend whose letter appeared in the Star (February 4) thinks that pensioners are of the opinion that they own the town?

Perhaps some may think so, but the majority are not like that, only wishing to be treated with the courtesy which most of us try to show and which, personally, I've nearly always been fortunate enough to receive.

But, as a friend of mine, who will be 83 in May, points out, if it had not been for our generation, we might have been under the Nazi jackboot, with no freedom such as we know today. He served for six years in the army during the second world war, about two years of it in Italy and 27 days in the hell of the Anzio Beachhead.

I am sure that the unfortunate incident of the gentleman's foot being run over by the trolley bag is a comparatively rare experience.

When I sometimes - not often - sit in the malls, it is to have a welcome rest and not to gossip. People don't change all that much with age and my own mum's maxim was 'courtesy costs nothing, its rewards are great.'

Mrs Clare Roberts, Warwick Street, St Helens.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.