DURING my childhood the children at St George’s junior school in Tyldesley would really look forward to the regular visits from the police, who taught us how to behave on the pavement, how to cross the road and how to ride our bicycles safely on the King’s highway.

I say King’s highway because all this took place during the late 40s and early 50s, before the death of King George VI.

After the serious stuff, there was always a Punch and Judy show, arranged by the police.

Happy, happy days.

However it occurred to me recently – 66 years on – that not many children had bicycles in those days, yet we all still received the necessary instructions from the police.

Nowadays, of course, every child who is old enough to cycle has a bike, yet as far as I am aware the police do not go out of their way to instruct the children in the same way as us more than half-a-century ago.

Perhaps it has become unaffordable, although in my day we didn’t have to wear safety helmets as they have to now.

It’s a topsy-turvy world, isn’t it?

Fred Parr

Sale Lane

Tyldesley