Sleep on it

THAT great American singer/songwriter Joan Baez was sounding as fresh as ever when she appeared at Glasgow's Concert Hall this week at the age of 78. As reader Barry Wilson from Paisley who was there tells us: "There was a standing ovation – from those of us who could stand, as we are all getting older. At the start of her second encore, a voice shouted out, 'You can stay all night!' Joan quickly replied, 'It's a while since I heard that proposition'."

Plain speaking

WE asked for your strict parents stories and Robert Gardner recalled: "I went to the Scout Jamboree in Greece when I was 16, camping on the Marathon Plains. I sent a long detailed postcard home telling my parents what was happening. When I arrived back I found my Mother had marked the postcard out of 10 with a very low score and left it on the mantelpiece. From that day on any cards sent home only had one word. 'Fine' in the centre of the writing space."

Flight of fancy

WHAT is it about older folk that they want to get to the airport earlier and earlier? A Glasgow reader heard an exasperated middle-aged son explain: "My parents want to go to the airport so early for their holiday flight that I couldn't stop myself from asking them if they had ever got the Wright Brothers as their pilots."

Bow to the inevitable

WE read in The Herald that an Ayrshire lawyer is to challenge the now widespread practice of schools charging fees to teach the children musical instruments. We cannot forget for instance the Lenzie mother who confessed to us that she told her daughter that the garage had the best acoustics for her trombone practice. Anyway, we always liked the story of composer John Lunn, Emmy winner for his Downton Abbey theme tune, who said he wanted to play the cello at his Stirlingshire school but they were all taken and he was given a double bass instead. Said John: "So few people played the instrument, and very quickly I was dragooned into playing for every orchestra in the county even though I could barely play it, so I was forced to learn very quickly." And thus a career was born.

Shabby advice

TRICKY things marriages. A reader phones to tell us: "The key to a successful marriage is letting things go. I've started with myself."

THOSE WERE THE DAYS - 1954: Timely advice for student nurses

Out of step

OUR tales of the chaos that children cause remind Willie Mclean in Dumbarton: "Years ago I attended the Boys Brigade Display at Cathcart Old Parish Church with my wife and daughter to watch our two sons. The boys were lined up and the Captain gave the order, 'Company will advance in review order, by the centre, quick...' Before he could say the next word, my four-year-old daughter shouted out, 'March!' There was utter chaos. Half of the boys started off. The audience erupted, but our daughter just sat there swinging her legs as if nothing had happened."

May time

SO who can help explain Brexit to us today? Up steps football commentator Michael Stewart who says: "If Brexit is pushed back and it is the end of May, that would be rather ironic."

Sweet

TODAY'S piece of daftness comes from Kent Graham who declares: "Young people today have it so easy. When I was a kid, cereal didn’t come loaded with sugar – we had to shovel it on ourselves."