NO DICTATOR IN OUR HOUSE!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 50, 7 June 1940, Page 11

NO DICTATOR IN OUR HOUSE!

Written for "The Listener"

by

DORIAN

SAKER

OU may be a wrestling fan and you may not be; in either case it doesn’t matter because you're a member of a democratic community and you'll want to see justice done. If Pop thinks he can dominate our house like a dictator he’s wrong; nobody’s going to. We're all going to have equal shares, and when two people want the radio, they should toss up, take it in turns, or switch off.

You see Pop suddenly developed a craze for wrestling or "rastling" as he calls it. It started when Earl McCready was here and some fool remarked that Pop was the dead spit of him, but not so big. The trouble was that Mum wouldn’t give him the cash to go every night, so that he has to listen to the fight as broadcast, and, of course, you can’t get the right "rastling" atmosphere unless the thumps can be heard two miles down the road. That’s why I’m writing this-so that people can see I’m in the right. Pop isn’t acting fair when he monopolises the radio and turns the place into a madhouse. And in addition, Pop will

persist in getting worked up. Nobody’s safe in the same room during one of the broadcast bouts. Aunt Emily was nearly strangled the other night when he was experimenting with a reverse Nelson that the announcer had described, and I’m sore and bruised all over. The furniture isn’t safe either-he broke a lampshade and two pictures while demonstrating the flying tackle. The result of it all was that we had a scrap. It sounds terrible for father and son to go for each other in the middle of the floor, but we were both so mad that it had to happen. I shoved him

off the edge of a chair, he closed, and before I knew what had happened [ was in an octopus clamp. Pop nearly bust himself laughing. He kept on chortling, "I never thought I could do it," and putting on the pressure a little harder. Meanwhile I was as white as a ghost, and Mum had to drag him off as I was about to faint. Anyhow that settled it. The majority must rule. even if I’m arrested for it. The wireless is going to go-since I paid for most of it. There’s a chap down the road wants a three-valve. Heaven’ only knows what will happen; I’m not going to be there when he finds out. But justice must be done, and we'll have no dic. tators in our house.