Random reminder

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 41

Random reminder

PARTY PIECE

As a university student, he was elated to find a job in a licensed restaurant where they were prepared to train him as a wine waiter. He was a presentable young man, with a pleasing personality. Soon he became quite expert in his service, with the white napkin suitably draped over his forearm, and the wine bottle reposing in the silver ice bucket. One evening he had a special party to wait on ... a family celebrating the mother’s 70th birthday. Their alcove was filled with flowers, the table resplendent with white linen and silver. The family gathered for their meal, sons and daughters, accompanied by their wives, husbands and children.

The early courses completed, they beckoned the wine waiter who was hovering discreetly in the background. They ordered champagne ... real cham-

pagne, not sparkling wine for this special occasion. Secretly, the wine waiter contemplated a good tip for services well rendered. The women were dressed expensively in their best evening dresses, the men splendid in their dinnersuits. Taking the first bottle from the ice bucket, the waiter displayed it and prepared to open it. Horror of horrors! The bottle slipped from his nervous fingers, shattered against the high back of one of the chairs, and drenched the back of one of the daughters, sitting beside her husband who had placed the order. She fixed the hapless wine waiter with a steely glare. “Your first night, I presume!” He swallowed, and replied with obvious sorrow. “No, Ma’am. My last!”