RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 38

RANDOM REMINDER

ALL ROUNDERS

It’s not often we give particular thought to the lighthouse-keepers of the world, but the grim carnage caused by children home for the recent school holidays was a reminder of how much worse it must be for others. The circular staircase of the light-house must undoubtedly provide untold opportunities for mischief. It really is remarkable, how diverse are the interests of the small boy, how apparently unending his energy. There was an occasion during the vacation which provided ample evidence of these characteristics; The young man of the bouse was host to three or four friends, and they entertained themselves throughout the day, oblivious of the wind howling outside and the rain beating on the win-dow-panes. It was only as darkness fell, and the lowing herd wound slowly off to tea that it was posaiblo

to assess the range of activities, from the chaos in the room they had been allotted. The first discovery was that there had been a great naval 'battle. Dozens of ships, constructed of little rubber building blocks had been heavily engaged, the ocean was Uttered with wreckage; by comparison, those affairs at Jutland and the Coral Sea were minor skirmishes. There were books and comics, of course, there was a halfcompleted project on a visit to Wellington, and there had clearly been a game of indoor bowls, which, from the oioeenesa of the unfinished head, had probably ended in debate. A massive yaebt was left still under construction, and it was later discovered thgt the pristine white sails had been requisitioned from the mending drawer, and not, unfortunately, from the one in which rags were kept.

In another corner, there wag a hom»«Mde model farmyard sittinc, rather incongruously, beside a home-made racing track, bright with the colours of the cars. About where one might have expected a pit stop, there was a plate bearing the remains of a swift toffee-making expedition to the kitchen. A game of Monopoly had been started, and abandoned, with the notes in dreadful confusion: perhaps the lack of decimal currency was • worry. And there had also been a game of indoor cricket, played with a tiny bat and ball, but complete with scoreboard and score-sheet: a strange document in its wild Inaccuracies and in the insistence of the listed batsmen on hitting far more sixes than even such as Messrs Motz and Taylor can usually provide. It was, tai aU, a typical day in a typical 10-year-Old's holiday.