The Unwitting And Rather Accidental Wisdom Of Teenagers.

The Bobster and his brother should set a trend...

Like any story worthwhile and hugely amusing, this one only saw the light of day after a few glasses of schnapps and amid other ditties of the same ilk. Personally, I think the Bobster had forgotten this gem of a story until last night.

We had a nice evening at my parents with the addition of a man from Florida who chose to spend a week in our neck of the woods and loved it by the way.

Comparing apples with oranges, we started to talk about the habit of expensive cars. No, not the luxury ones but Audis, BMWs and Edward's favourite, Volvos. Fair enough, good cars but our guest was saying that he would never ever dish out such a lot of money for a vehicle.

That gave a gentle nudge to Bob's memory and he regaled us about the time when he and his brother became motorized. As his brother is older, he was first over the no more bicycle line by having passed his license. If he had been a teenager today, he might have been given a new car by his parents, as so many do. But, he got his license back in the 80's.

Bob was too funny, retelling this story.

" You know, my brother got my mother's car, which already was about twenty years old. But he was so happy to have it. "

A powder blue two door Ford Escort 1100.

Then he revealed a little tidbit; my father in law being a motor mechanic had made sure that this elderly vehicle had a bit of oomph under the hood.

By virtue of association, Bob had a set of wheels now too. A set of wheels that would motor on the whiff of petrol. Very fuel efficient, and just as well...they had to get a part time job to fill it with petrol. As Bob said, there were other priorities and fuel often was an afterthought, resulting in his brother putting in a few Rands worth at a time. Enough to get him home from the disco.

Now to the piece de restistance...Bob, his brother and some friends were at the local agricultural show ( The Royal Show ) and had parked their chariot between two new cars. Fast forward to them going home, and they were perplexed, horrified and sad to see that the two new cars were still there, but their old car had been absconded.

I can just about imagine the to-do with going home and telling their parents, and of course reporting it to the police. Teenagers being teenagers, they might have had a drink or ehem, two.

But, Bob triumphantly told us that as his brother had only put in a few Rands worth of petrol, the car was found by the police a few hours later....it hadn't even made the city limit before the thieves had run out of petrol and had to abandon the car.

Just goes to show, that a full tank of petrol isn't always a good thing...

Biggi