AFTER reading Betty's Kitchen (Citizen, July 11) I could not resist writing this letter to say that a traditional Holland's pie would be one of the things I would want with me if I was stranded on a desert island.

I think Holland's pies are delicious and hold lots of memories for me.

I like the way that in the early days Walter Holland never wasted food but would sell bags of broken pies etc. for just a few coppers.

The pies have other good memories for me, such as hearing the reassuring noises of the trams and the clip-clop of the horse-drawn Holland's van coming from the old tram shed in John Street.

In those days a penny would go a long way, buying things such as a drink of Sasparella or a big apple.

Even a farthing could buy you 10 aniseed balls from Rostron's sweet shop. Those were the days when the sun always shined and winters saw six foot of snow.

Ada Gibson

Grange Street

Clayton-le-Moors

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