RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33779, 27 February 1975, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

THE WAY OUT

One of the most, engaging characteristics of little children is their hero worship of their fathers. It may not last long, mind you, but while it is there it is delightful, for the man of the house. It is this adoration of their fathers which forces little boys into making anxious comparisons between their dads and those of their class-room contemporaries. They are not envious of other boys and their fathers — simply fearful that someone

may find a faint flaw in a splendid structure. If the man next door is a Canterbury Rugby representative, a boy will announce that his father is better at making funnyanimals with scissors and paper — and find comfort in this. So it was with a little chap we know, whose father is enjoying a successful career in one of the professions. All was well until one recent day when the boy, aged nine, discovered that he

reached as far as his father’s shoulder. “You’re small. Dad,” he said, a little disconsolately. “Yes I am,” his parent confessed gravely. The boy was clearly unhappy — no doubt his best friend’s dad was built like an all-in wrestler. After a moment or two, he brightened. “But if we lived in Central Africa," he said, “you'd be a very tall pigmy, wouldn't you?*’-