Little Woman

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 16

Little Woman

AST week’s Brains Trust from 2YA was calculated to make a woman conscious of her sex. All the participants were male, and most of the questions sporting. Not that women are inherently unsportsmanlike, but Commander Fry’s detailed analysis of what makes a cricket ball swerve was inclined to make our Little Woman slump in her seat. Then there were two more questions "How can you prevent a child from being a bad loser and an aggressive winner," and "Which of the great British games, cricket, soccer, or rugger, is most heipful in developing character and sportsmanship?" The answer to the first was agreed to be "Send him to a good boarding school and teach him to play cricket, rugger and soccer," and to the other "Probably rugger, but cricket’s a good second." All of which left the Little Woman feeling somewhat characterless, as she had never been to boarding school or played rugger, cricket or even soccer. But though characterless she apparentiy possessed the strange power of inculcating character, for at the final question

"How can I make up to my son for the absence of his father overseas?" the entire Brains Trust rose as one man with husky cries of "The ladies, God bless ’em," and proclaimed the mother to be her son’s best and only essential friend, the character-builder par-excellence. Fortunately at this point the Wellington lights went out, and the single candle flame did not betray our Little Woman’s blushes.