RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32667, 24 July 1971, Page 28

RANDOM REMINDER

ATTENSHUN

Those young men in our society who draw a losing marble in the birthday ballot and are required initially to undergo three months military training do not all do so in an idealistic spirit. But at its expiry many aver that they would not have missed the experience for worlds. A consensus of opinion disclosed that the early nights, the discipline, sharpened appetites and improved physical fitness makes it very much worth while.

But as always, there are the handful of dissidents husky young men who while not opposing the principles of national military preparedness nevertheless find absence from their usual social and sporting activities, frustrating and irksome.

To some, the thought of meagre and unappetising meals, far removed as it is from actual fact, is something of a nemesis.

Take the case of the young man, of exceptionally fine physique who had forsaken his job as a farmhand to take up a

heavy manual job in the city.

The woman with whom he boarded was hard pressed to cope with his prodigious appetite. On his first day at work she packed a lunch, comprising two thick slices of bread in the form of a rather delectable sandwich, two hard-boiled eggs, a generous slice of cake, and fruit. On his return from work that evening she enquired if he had had sufficient to eat at lunchtime. “Not quite,” he replied, “I could do with an extra sandwich.” The landlady obliged. He again complained and the following morning was given four sandwiches, supplemented with nourishing extras. This also proved insufficient.

The landlady was at her wits end. The following morning the .packed lunch consisted of a chicken leg, fruit, cake and a monstrous sandwich. She had cut half a loaf in two and concocted a most delectable sandwich of ham, lettuce and mayonnaise dressing. That evening she asked him

how he enjoyed his lunch. “Fine” he replied, “but I did notice that you are back to two slices of bread again.” The following week he left for camp and she wondered exactly how the boys in the cookhouse at Bumham would cope.

And then there are the isolated instances of trainees, who at their preliminary medical examination resort to subterfuge to avoid their responsibilities. It is recorded that one young man attended wearing the thickest lensed spectacles he could lay his hands on. He claimed he could not see the chart let alone the wall on which it was hanging. He was rejected out of hand as medically unfit. That same evening, as a form of celebration, he attended one of the local movie theatres. The lights went up at intermission and he was horrified that the man sitting next to him was the officer who had tested his eyes that morning. Quick as a flash he turned to him and said “Excuse me, but does this bus go to Bryndwr?”