I FEEL compelled to answer Mr Gerlach (Have Your Say, October 6).

He says he hopes that I will not fall on hard times.

Let me assure him I really do know what hard times were.

I was one of 14 children, born and raised in the 1930s in Ballard Road, Poole.

Dad worked in the gasworks on shift work and in his time off he would be crew to any fisherman who wanted him, just to make ends meet.

My clothes and those of my other brothers and sisters were either “hand-me-downs” or gifts from the Salvation Army.

I didn’t have anything new until I left school at 14 and was able to buy it for myself.

Even then we had to rely on a “tally man”, paying weekly.

There were no benefits of any kind in those days, no family allowance either, so when Mr Gerlach talks glibly about hard times, I can really say I know what hard times were.

JOHN R COLE, St Margaret’s Road, Poole