I KNEW that some have entertained angels unawares, but not that one might attain near-beatitude all unknowingly ("Leave the car at Home", October 4).

As I toddled off to primary school, I little thought that I was setting forth in the paths of righteousness. Thus, year-upon-year, thence to junior, thence to senior school, I made my pedestrian way with slowly accumulating virtue.

Discouragement could not make me once relent. When the school run was necessitated, it was because I had dawdled over breakfast.

It left me, no athlete, pale and breathless. No one told me that it was for my health's sake, or that I was, thereby, preserving the environment for sedentary generations then unborn.

Society's tardy recognition will not go unappreciated. Certificate, sticker and letters of congratulations, please, to:

William Dixon Smith,

Welland Rise,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 09:25 Tuesday, October 12, 2004