Monday 14 January 2013

The importance of dressing for the occasion

With the schools preparing for the start of a new school year, we were reminiscing about 'the old days' and my mother regaled us with the following story, involving our green Morris Minor and a case of mistaken identity.

A very attractive neighbour was always late in taking her children to school. She was a real social butterfly who was regularly wined and dined by her second, older husband. On this particular day, she was so late that she didn't have time to dress and got into the car in her negligee. After dropping the children at school in Fish Hoek, she headed back home for Clovelly, but on the way, the car ran out of petrol. As she sat in her car at the side of the road, in her negligee, wondering what to do next, she saw a green Morris Minor coming  in her direction. "Oh good, it's Margaret," she thought and leapt out into the road to flag her down.

The car screeched to a halt and she whipped the door open and jumped in, in her negligee, only to find that the occupant was not my mother, but a rather rough type from the dockyard. He had already pulled away, obviously thinking it was his lucky day, and passed the Clovelly turnoff, heading for Kalk Bay. She shouted at him to stop the car immediately but he completely ignored her. As they drove through Kalk Bay, she was in a panic, in her negligee, and as they drove past the station, they came upon a pedestrian robot which had fortuitously turned red. Of course, in those days, even if you abducted someone, you apparently still stopped for a red robot, and she grabbed her opportunity and flung the door open, tumbling into the road, in her negligee. She rushed into the little garage (which is no longer there - it had two petrol pumps on the pavement!), where she knew the owners and was thankfully returned home safely, in her negligee.

Moral of the story - don't leave home in your negligee.

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