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Press, 18 July 1980, Page 17

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COLLECTOR’S PIECE

Collecting stamps or coins has always been encouraged as being worth while and educational pursuits for the young. These are very clean pursuits. A collecting impulse seems to be deeply embedded in the human species and fortunate indeed are the parents who can channel their offspring’s interest into one or the other of the aforementioned hobbies. Other parents are not so fortunate. One eight-year-old boy we know zooms into other people’s cast-offs. No doubt in time he will converge with others of.,his ilk on a city dump. Meanwhile he is limited to treasuretrove found on the street or gladly . sacrificed by the unfeeling mothers of his friends. Unfeeling for his mother, that is. His latest acquisition was part of a cake mixer. This he declared to, be a combination back-scratcher-cotton winder, and proceeded to demonstrate its capabilities. With tlie end of a fork in a recess he motivated the moving parts so that 1

an entire reel of cotton was unreeled and re-reeled on to his mechanical marvel. Unfortunately, the process did not work in reverse, and the final oily, tangled remains of cotton ended up in the destructor. The back-scratcher side of its character was tried out on his older sister, who frequently complained of having an itchy back. She, ungratefully, declared it only made her itch more. But inventors are often without honour in their homes and he was not willing to call himself beaten. Disassembling his find, he made the rapturous discovery that its interior was a reservoir of excellent grease. This he promised to disperse in good time upon anything or anybody who required greasing. In the meantime, he could not get it together again to safe-guard tlie precious grease, so would Mother help him? Up to her elbows in grease, reeking of the rancid odour of the stuff, she wondered. with mute suffering where his genius would strike next ...