“I remember my sister, a nurse, receiving a bottle of Grange when she ‘specialled’ Granny Penfold many years ago,” writes Nola Tucker of Kiama. “In those days, people who actually drank wine tended to go for the Ben Ean or, if really up themselves, Sparkling Rinegolde. I think the bottle went into the bottom of her wardrobe. Wonder what happened to it?”
Austin Rummery of Armidale (name and address of the week) muses that “Allan Gibson’s reference to former US president Richard Nixon (C8) reminded me of the wit who wrote: ‘Behind every mill-house there is a water gate’.”
“So, Allan, if we are to add ‘gate’ to these scandals, surely the original ‘gate’ should have been Watergategate?” posits Peter Rose of Caves Beach.
“Thank you, Duncan McRobert (C8),” says Peri Nicol of Brisbane. “My partner, who grew up in rural NSW, looked totally mystified when I recently mentioned wearing a ‘car coat’ in the ’60s and ’70s. The height of fashion on Sunday afternoon drives in the Holden station wagon.”
Still on Duncan, one of his Volvo-baiting nemeses, Peter Farquhar of Coffs Harbour, offers an automotive mea culpa: “Sorry, Duncan, I didn’t mean offence as I, too, drove a Volvo wagon, and a Rover. Sans baseball cap, and no gloves.”
The other partaker, Bob Hall of Wyoming, never drove a Ford, the closest being “Dad’s 36 Pilot and a marvellous 54 Customline. I started with a second-hand Peugeot 404, followed by a Corolla, a Camry, a Subaru and a Mitsubishi. Dad took me to a TAB the first day they opened in the mid-’60s in that Ford Customline. Fond memories.”
We’re keeping it vehicular for the moment, with the appropriately named Ian Wheeler of Moss Vale: “Indicator stalks (C8) are one thing but who decides which side the filler cap goes on a new car design? If they were all on the same side, chaos would result at service stations. Somewhere there must be a ‘filler-cap tsar’ keeping count and allocating sides to ensure a 50/50 split.”
Dermot Perry of Mount Keira recently came across one of the more curious Trump toys (C8): “A strange, upright, long-necked plastic pig with Donald Trump’s face on its belly that emitted a snorty grunt when squeezed at a store in Warrawong. I could not bring myself to buy it but I photographed it and, on a return visit, the shop still hadn’t sold it!”
Column8@smh.com.au
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