RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31344, 14 April 1967, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT

The side-effects of having to get up too early in the morning were mentioned in this column yesterday. Now to hand comes a further example of the bone-headedness which comes from being dogtired. He was a commercial traveller, and had to be in Dunedin at 10 a m. on a Monday. He decided he would not travel down quietly on Sunday, but get up really early on Monday morning. On Sunday, he packed his car. On Mon-

day, at 3 a.m., he rose, unrefreshed, showered, had a moody bite of toast, went to the garage. He put the key in the ignition, turned it, the car started, and stalled. He tried again. It stalled a second time. He tried a different gear. It stalled again. His appointment was urgent, he had little time to lose. Seizing a bicycle, he rode at furious speed—for a commercial traveller — for a mile to the home of a mechanic with whom he dealt. He woke the me-

chanic, the mechanic’s family, and a cross section of the mechanic’s neighbours. The mechanic came back with him. He sat in the driver’s seat, put the key in the ignition, turned it, put it in gear, and drove out of the garage—having remembered to release the hand brake. The charge for this service was considerable: but, all parties later agreed, was in keeping with the time of night, and the nature of the complaint.