RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31329, 28 March 1967, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

PEGGED DOWN

While one can sympathise with the shopkeeper whose stocks are limited through lack of import licences, it seems pretty clear that many people running retail businesses are simply doing a sloppy job of work. They just don’t seem to care about keeping their stocks replenished. Do you know how difficult it is today to buy a motoring cape? And Its almost impossible to find, anywhere, a full collection of coloured pictures showing the butterflies of the world. Do you appreciate the difficulty of obtaining, in a New Zealand shop, the sort of knout which is always handy to have about in case you decide you want to ride a camel or an elephant? Even the purchase of as simple an item as a peg used for scoring in crib-

bage poses insoluble problems. A friend of ours, in Dunedin recently, set out to buy a set of the pegs. He went to all the book shops, retail toy businesses, sports goods dealers. Everywhere, he was greeted with a sort of pitying amusement; it was all too obvious that the moment his back was turned, there would be titters of laughter about the crazy character wanting crib pegs. But he is a determined type, and he bought some coloured plastic golf tees, proposing to convert them into something smaller In preparation for a game of crib with a friend that evening. He bought a knife to cut the heads off the tees and then shape the tips suitably. But after much effort, he found plastic tees have a core resistant to knives.

He put his problem at his hotel that night before the head waitress, thinking that there might be an offer from the kitchen staff to do the job. They were interested, but unwilling to perform. However, they could see that something had to be done. Which was how a dining room full of people were treated to the macabre spectacle of a mature gentleman armed with a large wooden board and an enormous, lethal - looking meat chopper. There he sat, for all the world like an impecunious diner having to chop tomorrow s parsley to meet his meal charge. It was an outstanding example of an Individual’s determination to succeed. But you can’t win them aIL His friend didn’t like tne colour of the pegs.