WHILE YOU WAIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1062, 28 August 1930, Page 11

WHILE YOU WAIT

Aucklander Finds a New Job OYSTERS IN THE TOOL-BOX As a conveyance, the motorcar left quite a lot to be desired. It was small, and it was old. It had that “chug-chug” look about it one associates instinctively with the pre-war, two-cylinder era.

But as an oyster shop it could not have been bettered. It was made for the job. At the rear of the little red twoseater was a compartment for luggage or tools. The lid of this hinged outward, forming a shelf. On the shelf were a bag of oysters, a half-filled bottle, and a few shells. Seated at the shelf on a home-made portable stool was the Oyster Man. He opened oysters rapidly, oblivious of the inevitable group of onlookers at the kerbside In Vulcan Lane this morning.

By and by he filled the bottle, sealed it. and carried it into a nearby shop. When he returned, he packed up his stool, his oysters, and his shells, shut the lid of the tool-box and, to all cutward appearances, became a motorist with somewhat antiquated tastes. “I’ve been at this work all this season,” he told a Sun man. “Yes, it is the first time 1 have tried it, and today is the first day I have been in the City. I don’t like it much, either. Prefer the suburbs.”

The Oyster Man claims to be the first of his kind who has thought of peddling his wares in this fashionopening them on the spot and selling them fresh. “The fact is, I was out of work. I had this little car and it was necessary to do something. It was a case of—er—” “Necessity being . . .” suggested The Sun man. “ . . . The mother of invention. That’s what I was trying to think of. Well, it’s interesting work, but to tell the truth, it does not pay very well—at least, so far. I am afraid that by the time I have worked up a real business the season will be over.

“I buy the oysters at the Government depot and I sell them either opened or in the shell. Of course, it pays me better to open them. An extra threepence. “It is an idea that should go well. You see, people like to know that bottled oysters are really fresh. Oysters live a long time in their shells and they are alive when I open them. “Do I get through a sack a day? Well, not quite. I wish I did, but times are hard. Oysters Are luxuries and not everybody can afford them these days. Oh, well . . .”

The Oyster Man stepped into his car after winding it to life. Then he chugged away to another stand.