The time would come when my sister and I would be told to go and get ready for bed. My sister was happy to tuck into bed with lights out which didn't suit me.
Off I would go, get into my pyjamas and then I would sneak back into the lounge and hide behind the big old sofa we had at the time and bury my head in a book.
After some time, I would hear my mother say to my dad – "Has Trish gone to bed yet?" The game was up and I would be sent off to bed with a flea in my ear.
Reading must have served me well in spite of many absences from the classroom as when I started college the aptitude test placed me in the academic class.
I am still an avid reader and cannot go to sleep at night without reading a few chapters of the current library book. My husband is also a reader and consequently our children always had a bedtime story and later we enjoyed reading to our grandchildren.
Thank goodness for libraries.
Trish Simpson
Te Puke
Prisoners should work
I have just received a communication from Amnesty International asking for help - which I am happy to give.
The organisation discusses the appalling conditions faced by many in the NZ prison system. I agree and have for a long time thought that just locking up miscreants and keeping them in cells for 23 hours a day is a silly waste of resources.
I preferred the American system of making them work.
Jim Adams
Rotorua
All have a place
It was great to read the letter from Sally Quaddel (May 18), which perfectly outlined what our city needs to be even better.
I completely agree with her: We need to feel we all have a place here.
(Abridged)
Andrew Sommerville
Bethlehem
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