'PANTS man' (Argus, August 10), brought a smile and a memory.

As a schoolboy in the 1950s I was regularly "breaking and entering".

Outside school hours I was the errand boy for a grocer in Baneswell.

Opposite the grocers was a fish and chip shop. It was my job to open the shop for the spud man. No key was left.

I had to stand on a tall, ancient and wobbly stool and climb in through a tiny fanlight window.

There was a spike sticking up, part of the window latch. With care not to leave any part of my anatomy behind, I ended up head first in the sink. Then I could open the door.

I was never offered a free bag of chips.

Dave Woolven

Newport