“It was good to see Granny make a cameo,when Peter stacked the newspapers on the stand in Tuesday night’s episode ofBack In Time For The Corner Shop,” writes Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook. “The broadsheet carried the headline ‘(number indecipherable) join Pope for Mass’. It was hard to read the eighth column,however,back in the ’70s Column 8 was on the front page. The date of the paper? Pope Paul VI made his visit to Australian from November 30 to December 3,1970. My guess is some time in December. Grannies,can you confirm?” Happy to oblige,Allan. The headline reads:“250,000 join Pope for Mass at Randwick racecourse” and the date is December 2,1970.
Must’ve been in a macabre mood back then. Column 8 carried this item on the day:“ALL risks policy. Notice on one of those $1.90 plastic balls,which,strapped to the back,give buoyancy in the water:‘Guaranteed. Money back if your child drowns’.”
Jon Page may be the manager of Dymocks (C8) but just up the road,the person authorising the Clubs NSW ads is B. Punter. We thank William Galton of Hurstville Grove.
Clearly,everybody has a Morris tale (C8) and clearly,the rev-head in Granny has let it drag on too long. We just wanted to see if anyone had tested the “floats on fluid” claim,but now it’s time to park the discussion with these final missives,the first of which comes from N Andrew McPherson of Kalaru:“The old Morris cars were never built for racing. My friend once forgot to tie his surfboard onto the roof racks after a surf at North Maroubra. He then drove to my place at Lurline Bay,and the board was still sitting on the racks when he got there.”
“The Morris Minor may have been slow on the hills,” admits Trevor Webster of Lane Cove. “But in 1958,me and a friend,with our wives and a 2-year-old,drove two 1939 Morris 8s from London to Sydney,only shipping Madras (Chennai) to Penang and then Singapore to Derby (WA) – 17663 miles on the speedo over some roads you would have to see to believe.”
“Saturday’s Wordle word (C8) was indeed ‘voter’,” notes Paul Keir of Strathfield. “After digesting the election results,Monday’s word was ‘guano’. Makes me wonder if the lady choosing the words is having a laugh.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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