Random reminder

Press, 29 May 1982, Page 24

Random reminder

FIRED BRIGADE

They had a dance at Kirwee recently. A shipwreck dance, which required all the revellers to come as if they had had only seconds notice before abandoning ship. Did they revel... a reliable source informs us that none of the survivors were feeling any pain when at 12.45 a.m. all the lights went out. This was not a preliminary warning that the dance was about to end. Nor was it done to present the more amorous with the sort of opportunity they would have seized avidly. It was so that all the dancers could hear the announcement that members of the volunteer fire brigade were required to report immediately to the fire station. It does them all credit that they were out of the place within seconds, and that within, a minute or two, the remaining revellers were able to see the fire ■engine careering past the hall. It was a motley crew on board. One pair of were immaculately dressed because, they said, they had been on a luxury cruise and had been having coffee after dinner when the ship went down. The others almost

defied description. One gentleman was wearing only a wheat sack and hobnailed boots; another had on a woolly singlet, long johns, odd socks and slippers, and another looked very smart in his wet suit, mask, snorkel and flippers. A particularly noticeable young man was turned out in a plastic Mac, gumboots and carried a shepherd’s crook, which he had used from time to time to raise the hem of women's . dresses to what he clearly regarded as a fashionable height. There was a pirate, eye-patch and all, with a distinct list to starboard, a sailor with a rolling gait, but the effect of that refinement had long been lost among the others who did not know they had a rolling gait and there was a man in his wife’s nightie and a life jacket. But they all tumbled out to the fire engine, and it is pleasing to report that they were soon back. With the number of fire-fighters, and their enthusiasm, a hedge fire was soon put out and so were the firemen, when they discovered that their absence had not prevented those at the hall from carrying on. And what a carry-on it was.