Parental guidance

Sir, – The current upsurge in fuel prices brings my late father’s cry echoing back from the 1970s. If any of his children stood chatting with friends at the front door, he would shout from his armchair in the front room, “Come in and close the door – stop heating up the Kilmacud Road!” – Yours, etc,

ROGER McGRATH,

Sandymount,

Co Dublin.

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Sir, – Who else had a mammy who told you to shut the fridge immediately you took something out? “Keep it cold.” New clothes were never bought in the correct size. “You’ll grow into it.”

What about saving bits of string, rubber bands, owning an overflowing button box, keeping brown wrapping paper, saving unfranked postage stamps, and putting compostable rubbish in the centrefold in newspapers before putting it in the bin?

Write right up to the margins in a letter, and in the address space too in best spidery writing. Never leave the soap bar in the bath water.

And never, ever turn on an oven without it containing a roast, a few cakes of brown bread and a homemade apple or rhubarb tart. – Is mise,

SIOBHÁN

NÍ­ CHUANAIGH,

Clonskeagh,

Dublin 14.