READING Stephen Ward’s letter about car ownership (November 29) made me wonder how we managed to enjoy holidays pre-Second World War when practically no one owned a car and, yet, we did.

Most of the holidays that I went on were choir or Sunday school trips, but those that my parents took were usually day excursions to places like Bournemouth. The great thing was that it was somewhere different, with new features to explore, new places to visit and where the shops were different from those at home. even the train journey was exciting.

Those were happy days.

In the immediate post-war period, it was possible to hire a car and visit a wider field of places of interest and, what is more, park the car with little trouble.

The advantage of the car is that it provides the mobility to visit far more places but, I wonder, how many people journey through traffic jams and struggle to find a place to park with the sole object of baking themselves on the beach?

Despite the popularity of the car, there has to come a time when fossil fuel runs out and we shall again be back into a mainly car-less world.

DERRICK HOLT, Fortnam Close, Headington, Oxford