TWO disparate items (Evening Press, March 31) prompted me to remember long-gone schooldays in my native town of malt and hops.

One item was a letter written by Coun Ann Reid who appeared to refer to the benefit of education or, maybe, lack of it - take your pick!

In The Way We Were columns readers were informed that the then vicar of Thirsk used devious means to try to persuade local parents to take advantage of county council scholarships.

What a shock!

By contrast, at Tadcaster during my schooldays the vicar, the Rev J Rowland Jones, would have been visiting some of his parishioners to mollify parents' righteous indignation that there were so very few West Riding County Council scholarships to win a free place at Tadcaster Grammar School.

At that time the school was a fee-paying selective one. It had enormous prestige. Sadly, it would now be the object of derision by certain politicians and some local councillors alike. A mystery to that Thirsk vicar? It is to me!

Ida Mary Goodrick,

Woodlands Avenue, Tadcaster.

Updated: 11:09 Wednesday, April 07, 2004