Snake And The Civvy

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 168, 18 July 1942, Page 8

Snake And The Civvy

Featuring In the tinsel-tonsilled R.B.C. communiques of late as a more or less light casualty, "Tiny" Freyberg, V.0., can prove at last that whirring shrap. and "jumping jacks" and ill-intentioned ilk are no respecters of persons. How he has escaped so long has your correspondent licked to a frazzle. Tiny Freyberg was—and obviously still is—our beau ideal. Snake, alas, was not. Snake was a 4 x 4 built unit of the Div. Supply; so much like Old Bill of Bairnslather fame that it was blatant plagiarism. Present dainty browser has seen Snake put away nine pie.: in the Naafi as a sort of aperitif. He was no tailors' dummy, either; and paying of compliments when on picket was one with Nineveh and Tyre. Well, Snake, picketing the lines at Helwan, just over from Div. H.Q. and other alphabetical offices, hailed a strolling civilian. "Hey, fella," called Snake. "Gotti cigara? Gottne kibritas?" "I beg your pardon?" said the astonished civilian, "I really—." "Aw. hell," said Snake, "Gimme a weed an' a match, willya?" "Delighted," the civilian obliged. A fine fella, Snake approved. "An' what about a few tickets for the flicks one night, eh?" he asked.