RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume C, Issue 29437, 13 February 1961, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

CROWNING GLORY

It has been truly said that if you want to get ahead, should apt a hat jou snouia get a nat. Men, of course, have reached positions of some eminence without them—cir Fdmtmd Hillarv was fair Mmund Hiuary was one ew women believe they will go far without the right headgear for the occasion. This was brought home graphically to a young Papanui girl the other day and the experience has caused her to follow avidly reports of the Queen’s tour of India, to read all she can about India and its inhabitants and even to attempt to raise All-India Radio, so far without success but with much ado. It was her first day at intermediate school and she felt really special and resplendent in her im-

maculate navy dress, her first school uniform. Her shoes were burnished, her hair brushed and braided anc j ber f ace shining as she waved to two proud parents and walked off to the bus - The sun seemed to shining just for her and the ver y a j r gave an exciting feeling of expectancy. But there was disillusionment in the bus. The driver hurriedly gave her a ticket, the passengers were buried in their papers or debates or early morning glumness and no one gave her a first, let alone second, glance. With womanly intuition she put it down to the fact that she was not wearing a hat and after discovering that all the other girls at school had hats, she immediately requested one on her return home after school. There was a brief consultation about the

family budget, already reddened by school books, uniforms, fees, cases, stationery, sports equipment and all the other paraphemalia of free education; and mother and daughter set off for the big city for the bat Evem’.Uy one of the right size and colour was run to earth and it was worn proudly out of the shop and back to the homeward - bound crowded bus. The mother found a seat somehow, but the daughter dutifully moved to the rear of the bus. There was an immediate reaction. A young Indian sprang to his feet and indicated the vacant seat. She hesitated, but he won her easily.’ He "looked at the uniform, the shoes, the new case and finally at the hat. “She is,” he announced to the bus in general, “a young lady—l reckon."