Sydney Morning Herald [Australia]
16 January 2020
Column 8
[…] A tale from Jo Rainbow of Orange that illustrates
the important life lessons that children can learn from being put to work (C8).
"My neighbour was having an extension built and her four-year-old
granddaughter would help by supplying the builders with biscuits during their
break. With approval from Grandma, the builders provided the granddaughter with
her own little pay-packet. This was proudly presented at the local lolly shop
with the explanation that she was helping build a house. The shopkeeper asked:
'When will it be it be finished?' And was told ‘Depends’. Oh, depends on what?
'Depends when the f---ing bricks arrive from Watford'.” […]
Sydney Morning
Herald
20 January 2020
Column 8
[…] Jo Rainbow of Orange stands accused by Owen Dally,
also of Orange, of “...blatantly plagiarising the yarn concerning the young
girl helping out builders next door (C8) and the delay regarding bricks. The
exact story appeared in Bill Bryson’s Down Under. I am afraid [she] has
blackened the good name of our city,” concludes Owen, pithily. Orange you glad
you wrote in, Jo?
“The joke about the child ‘working’ for construction
workers was old when Granny first picked up her knitting needles,” adds a
needlessly hurtful Irving Warren of Riverview. […]
Sydney Morning
Herald
21 January 2020
Column 8
[…] Jo Rainbow
responds to accusations that her builder's story was plagiarised (C8): “My
apologies to Mr Bryson and to all those who wrote in. In future, I will use the
prefix “YAFSWPIHNQ” – Yet Another Family Story Whose Provenance I Have Never
Questioned.” […]
=====
Bill Bryson, In A Sunburned Country (Toronto:
Anchor Canada, 2001), 124-5. Also published under the title Down Under.
[Catherine Veitch, who lived in Melbourne, Australia,
was a friend of Bryson’s.]
In the 1950s a friend of Catherine’s moved with her
young family into a house next door to a vacant lot. One day a construction
crew turned up to build a house on the lot. Catherine’s friend had a
four-year-old daughter who naturally took an interest in all the activity going
on next door. She hung around on the margins and eventually the construction
workers adopted her as a kind of mascot. They chatted to her and gave her
little jobs to do and at the end of the week presented her with a little pay
packet containing a shiny new half crown.
She took this home to her mother, who made all the
appropriate cooings of admiration and suggested that they take it to the bank
the next morning to deposit it in her account. When they went to the bank, the
teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her
own pay packet.
“I’ve been building a house this week,” she replied
proudly.
“Goodness!” said the teller. “And will you be building
a house next week, too?”
“I will if we ever get the fucking bricks,” answered
the little girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment