RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29828, 22 May 1962, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

FLETCHER FAILED FINAL FITNESS

There will be some sympathy for Mrs Janie Fletcher, a 65-year-old Texas teacher, who volunteered for service with the Peace Corps in Brazil, but was rejected by a final training centre in Puerto Rica because she could not run a mile before breakfast, do push-ups each morning, and swim with her feet tied and her clothes on. The information on these lines cabled from Washington recently hinted that perhaps the Peace Corps did not really want Mrs Fletcher. But it all goes to show how pampered Ameri-

can womanhood has beB come. Mrs Fletcher j complained to a Texas senator about what was 3 described as “virtual a combat training.” Here 1 she was, only 65, and making a fuss about having fallen while • swinging from a rope on o an obstacle course. 1 The average New Zeae land mother probably s runs two miles before i breakfast, particularly i on a school morning. Moreover, it is unlikely s that Mrs Fletcher, on i her ealy morning t gallop, was required to s carry a 201 b baby under s one arm to save it from grievous injury beneath f the flying hoofs of the other children.

Push-ups each morning would be a push-over for housewives accustomed to lifting large laundry loads, scrubbing acres of floors, and leaping about the furniture on dusting missions like thar, or ibex. As for the swimming business, it would be child’s play for a woman who regularly travels by bus, or shops on Fridays, or goes to the races, or takes an interest in bargain sales. It’s only a matter of having an instinct for survival. We have no Statue of Liberty in Lyttelton harbour. If we did, she would have to be given muscles that bulged like bagpipes.