RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29983, 19 November 1962, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

LOCK, STOCK, BARREL

There are times when one must regard the most generous, helping hand with some apprehension and distrust, when one’s admiration for the ingenuity, resource and independence of modern youth is tempered with misgiving. Two instances have thus been provided by incidents at secondary schools, south of the Selwyn. At one of them, a master came out to his car to drive home and found his key was still in the ignition block, and the door locked, much the same set of circumstances as those of our damsel in distress last Saturday. But he had no sooner lifted his hat to scratch

his head than a pinkfaced cherub from the third form arrived and with a disarming smile suggested that the whole businesss should be left to him. And within seconds he had produced, from a pocket apparently crammed with apple cores, toffee papers and detention cards, a piece of wire, which he manipulated in the door lock with such skill and assurance that it was open in less time than it took for the schoolmaster to achieve a passable imitation of the Hollywood double take. At the other school, the commanding officer of the cadet corps was about to cancel the cadet day because the armoury was locked and the key

was on the inside. For security, the massive armoury door had been double-locked, and there was a padlock of vast proportions. But again there was a schoolboy volunteer. He climbed swiftly on to the roof, and, with the dexterity and efficiency of someone completing a threeyear training course at Colditz, whipped away a few loose tiles and was in to the roof end down into the armoury before you could say wooden horse. In both these instance* the masters concerned were sufficiency grateful for the assistance to deny themselves the urge to inquire about the background to the youthful exploits.