RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 30

RANDOM REMINDER

NIGHT BEAT

This is a straightforward story, perfectly true, quite startling, and it needs no embroidering. A Wainoni man took home a parcel of sulphur ammonia for his lawn. The stuff was intended to keep the weeds out and make the grass greener. He left his parcel in his garage, and at the week-end went to spread it He saw another tin with what he took to be his sulphur ammonia; it seemed to him it must have been some left over from the previous year. He spread it That night his wife asked

him if he had seen any- i thing of some special detergent she had bought to spread on the drive and remove the grease and oil stains from the concrete. The facts came out. They both wondered what was going to happen to the lawn. The man, known in the district for his occasional eccentricities as something of a character, went off to work on Monday still wondering. His wife telephoned him and suggested that when he came home he could get the vacuum cleaner out on an exten-

sion and clear up all the diabolical little detergent crystals from the lawn. Conscious of his colourful reputation, the man advised her to get on with the preparation of a nourishing meal and forget about it Besides, he said, the neighbours thought he was mad already; how would they react to the sight of a man so house-proud that he even vacuum-cleaned his lawn? He had reckoned without the simple logic of women. “You could,” she said, "do it after dark."