RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30530, 27 August 1964, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

HARDWOOD PREFERRED

One of the few sources of comfort left to us is the incoming mail which includes suggested topics for discussion in these columns. Among the latest is a clipping from the advertising columns, dealing with someone’s demand for a small iron-frame piano. The letter writer said he would love to see what we make of it. Well, it's not much to go on with, really. An advertisement consisting of five words, apart from the telephone number and address. But when the wording of the advertisement is studied carefully, it does rather suggest that the instrument is designed for someone's young son. Small, iron frame. It would have to be both, to

withstand the assault usually mounted by small boys who would rather be out playing football. It all conjures up a dreadfully depressing picture. He can be seen quite easily, really. Age, 10; build, chunky; appearance, revolting; disposition, appalling; habits, quite unhygienic, And there, in a mood of brooding rebellion, he will be required to sit, an hour or so at a time, pounding out scales with his thumbs, while his mother suppresses a strong desire to scream because she wants to think of him looking like Little Lord Fauntleroy and completely captivating an erudite concert hall audience. From there, he will go

on to sueh compositions as ‘‘On the Ice at Sweet Briar,” which he will convert, in his firm belief that pace will end detention the sooner, into so spirited an assault on the senses that by comparison the Ride of the Valkyries would seem like a Sunday afternoon stroll in Amberley. It will only last a year or two; the conflict will end with the complete capitulation of the rest of the family, and an advertisement offering a small iron frame piano for sale. But for the rest of her days, her mother will sigh as she tells her friends what a pity It was the boy gave up his music; he had such talent