RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29866, 5 July 1962, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

SURPRISE PACKET

One of winter’s redeeming features is that it is the off-season for travelling anywhere. For a good many people, travelling consists of being late and forgetting things; desperate searches for tickets, arguments about reservations, while large, angry men immediately behind in the queue make it abundantly clear that they are large and angry. There are some men who need personal attendants to take them, from A to B. Luggage is always one of the major problems. The decision is made to take just a few things, as little as possible, and it seems that this has been accomplished, until

it is time to take it all on to a train or ship, when it suddenly makes one feel like Trader Horn setting out on one of his more ambitious journeys. Of course the travel experts help by booking luggage through, by taking it clean out of the traveller’s hands. But even they have their occasional bad moments. There is a Christchurch man who has cause to know this. He is a large man, who would much prefer to be outdoors than in an office, and when he travels, he likes to travel light, and fast. So it was that he was in Wellington, preparing to come home, carrying one brown bag. At the counter of the travel or-

ganisation there stood beside him a young woman, whose destination was Auckland. She was carrying one brown bag, too. Of course, they had the wrong labels put on them. When our hero picked up his bag at his destination, he was alarmed to discover it contained an evening dress, and a good many unmentionable accessories. He felt a little distressed about it, until he thought of the girl, obviously acting out for a formal ball, and discovering that her case contained a man’s suit, a couple of other items of clothing, a bottle of whisky, and a large piece of smoked trout