RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 17

RANDOM REMINDER

COLD SHOULDER

One of the fiercest demands made on womanhood is the reception and entertainment of in-laws for the first time. The wedding and the honeymoon are over, it’s back home to a flat or small house, and before very long the man will mention casually that he has asked his parents to come in for a meal. There are probably lots of girls who accept this hard fact of life and remain unmoved and calm. There are many more who are thrown into the depths of dismay. It seems to

them that the whole future of their marriage, and their relations with their relations will depend on the quality of the meal. One such, married only a few short weeks, and not having seen very much of the in-laws, decided that as the flat they were in was small, it would be difficult to entertain indoors all afternoon; so she persuaded her husband that they ought all to go out for a drive, and come home together for an evening meal. She applied herself to the task of preparing a casserole dish with much industry and frequent reference to the printed

word. Everything was measured and prepared with meticulous care, she set the oven properly to have a steaming meal available on their return, and duly went out with her husband and his parents, glad to be outdoors and free of guilty feelings about the disposition of the furniture, her choice of colour in the curtains and so forth. The entertainment came later, when they returned from their long drive, eager for the meal. It was not a success. Her ovea sits next to her refrigerator; and she had put the meal in the wrong door.