RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30225, 2 September 1963, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

PROCESSION

Some readers may recall the plight of the woman whose trim back lawn became, by degrees, a mechanised jungle. A second car which had to be parked on the lawn was joined by three more cars belonging to sons of the family, a pigeon loft, a Wendy house, two motor - cycles, two bicycles, a large speedboat, a trailer for the speedboat, and a Vic-torian-looking bright red tractor for pulling the boat and trailer. This, as might be expected, left the woman of the house with some cousin of claustrophobia; and ultimately she persuaded her husband that he could remove at least the tractor, which could be kept at the rear of his business premises. He agreed, but said that as

he did not have licence plates, he would have to be towed. So off they set, the wife in the car, pulling the husband, sitting on the tractor. For the man, the next 20 minutes were terrible. He was out of touch with his wife, because there was no horn on the tractor to attract her attention. And she. evidently on the presumption that once started, it was better to keep going at a brisk pace than stop and strain the car by pulling away a one-ton tractor from a standing start, aged him 10 years on the way. Her determination to maintain the best possible speed took her across a compulsory stop with only a sighting pause, and at corners, her gentle application of the brakes threatened to put the tractor on top of the car. f

For as he was directly behind her and above, she could not see him waving frantically. And he, high in the air and helpless, felt like an inexperienced mahout on a charging elephant. For she was not aware that there were no brakes on the tractor, and that if he had locked the wheels of the machine, as was possible, he would have pulled at least the bumper bar from the back of the car. So they careered across the suburbs, the woman in front happy in the knowledge that here was a job being well done, the man behind firmly convinced that disaster would strike at any moment. But they got there. And she got out of the car with a bright smile “Nothing to it, was there?” she said.