RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33563, 18 June 1974, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

When a small group of women meet, their conversation, sooner or later, will veer around to their husbands. And if the trend of conversation (passed on to us) within the confines of a suburban residence can be taken at face value, it appears that some wives have a distinct advantage over others.

Our friend and informant made little or no contribution to the discussion, feeling unqualified to do so. She has been married only a matter of three months and the dust has barely had time to settle.

But Cyclone Bettv started off proceedings bv proclaiming that she was sure that her husband would be absolutely helpless if she had occasion to take a holiday on her own. Wouldn't even know where to find the tea caddy, the poor dear, let alone the laundry bag.

Cyclone Cynthia spoke

in similar vein but elaborated to the extent that her Harry, that way too, would never remember to put out the rubbish bin, would have clothing and the like strewn from one end of the house to the other and the only thing he would remember to pick up would be the newspaper from the front gate.

However Cyclone Caroline declared that she would not even remotely consider going away oh her own, if only for a day or so. She said her husband did not keep very good health and was sure that he would get mixed up with the pills prescribed for him, or fail to take them at all. But it was left to Cyclone Clarissa to take an entirely different tack. She said that her husband could be left on his own for a month or more and she would return to find him hale and hearty and the home as clean as a new pin.

She went on to say

that the previous weekend he was a very big help to her. He did the washing, dusted the furniture, vacuumed the place right through, prepared their roast meal on his own, did all the washing up, preserved some fruit, made some pies and pikelets to put in the freezer and cleaned all the windows inside and out. She added however that he was a bit slow in cleaning the Venetian blinds this time. It took him almost two days, possibly because he had also spent some little time in cleaning out the stove and defrost the refrigerator.

But for all his good qualities she sometimes thought that her husband was something like a child.

She complained somewhat bitterly about the way she often had to look after him. When he was sewing on buttons, mending his clothes or darning his socks, she always had to thread the needle for him.