RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32613, 22 May 1971, Page 23

RANDOM REMINDER

MORE HASTE

Car parking in Christchurch becomes more difficult month by month, the theory being, apparently, that if no-one is able to leave a car for more than a few minutes in or less than a few miles from the business area, the city is certain to be a happy and prosperous one. But lack of parking space is not the only hazard for those venturing into town on familiar errands. * . « The young married woman brought her two-year-old daughter in her car, the purpose of the exercise being the reservation of seats for a popular entertainment then being staged in Christchurch. The metered spaces beside the premises which looked after bookings were full, so she did a circuit of the block, trying to find a place for her car. Then

she did another circuit, and another. But at last, success; someone left a five-minute parking space, and she was into it quickly. It did not take her very long at all to reserve the theatre seats, and put the tickets safely in her handbag. But why, mothers have asked for years, must the children’s toy department be so handy? On their way they went, the two-year-old clasping a plastic toy in her small, warm hand. Down the stairs they went, mother wondering if the five minutes had expired, and whether she would be met by a whole retinue of traffic officers, all with pencils and paper in hand. But there was another halt. There was a cake counter to pass, and from it wafted the most delicious odours, • coming from confections and dishes designed to suggest a relaxing cup of

coffee at home, and with it something at which to nibble .... Daughter in one hand, hand-bag and the flat box from the cake counter in the other, she went her way. And she was lucky. No parking ticket. Just the quick business of putting the parcel on the bonnet, fishing for her car key in the hand-bag, opening the locked door, installing the small daughter inside, and a quick get-away down a one-way street. She was half-way home when she realised that her six delicious pieces of apple shortcake, and box, had been left on the bonnet. And a couple of seconds more to ascertain that they were no longer there. Parking problems being what they are, the probability is that the shortcake was squashed, within seconds, beneath the anxious wheels of at least two cars.