I write regarding Roger Lee’s letter (The Argus, January 28) in which he recalls his memories of Patcham just after the war.

The fizzy drinks he mentions at Tomlinson’s Stores were probably the first of their kind: a sherbert tablet in a bottle of water was then fizzed up through a machine linked to a gas cylinder.

I too remember the smell of the food, mostly in sacks.

What interested me most was Mr Lee’s memories of the “old lady” he mentions who sold toffee apples over the gate from the cottages in Ladies Mile Road, opposite Tomlinson’s.

That “old lady” was my mother. I suppose when you’re young all grown-ups are old but she was actually a very pretty 26 years old.

Mr Lee might also remember that my father was known in Patcham as the Winkle Man.

In those days, Sunday tea for a lot of Patcham residents was winkles with bread and butter.

My father used to pick the winkles from rocks in Peacehaven. He would clean them and prepare them on the Friday before his morning round on Sunday. Any leftovers were sold from his wheelbarrow outside our house.

All of this was in Ladies Mile Road in Patcham in 1947.

George Shilliam, Phyllis Avenue, Peacehaven