RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31011, 17 March 1966, Page 30

RANDOM REMINDER

FAUX MA

Today should really be devoted to the Irish and their celebration of St. Patrick’s Day but they get into sufficient trouble on their own account. Yet in a way, this small piece of domestic history does have a tenuous link with the Irish, who have a fine reputation for producing the most inappropriate of phrases at the most damaging moment. The woman lives In the country and when the minister of her parish intimated that he would be pleased to come for tea with her, and her family, she showed every evidence of pleasure, and panic. For she has four children and 4

although she no doubt loves them dearly, she is sufficiently practical to realise that the bon mot is not their forte. They have, in fact, something of a reputation for coming out with singularly ill-chosen epithets. But they have two weaknesses in common with many other children—fish and chips and television, which some may say is a natural sort of marriage. The provision of both promised to keep all four children fully occupied while the guest and the parents ate in dignity and decorum elsewhere. A stern instruction that they were to stay where they had been put also helped.

So it was that both meals proceeded satisfactorily. In the adult group, the minister and his host and hostess sat after their meal for a quiet smoke and light conversation, which turned to the school swimming sports held that afternoon. And it was this development which brought to the lady of the house more confusion than her four children, in concert, could have achieved. She was more interested in athletics than swimming, so told the minister, with considerable enthusiasm, that although she liked swimming, she was really much more interested in athletic supports.