Driveway service gets the boot

It’s been confirmed, there is no “filler-cap tsar” (C8), Robyn Hansen of Pennant Hills and Jeff Stanton of Strathfield have both pointed out that the filler-cap is on the opposite side of the car to the exhaust pipe. Jeff thinks this is “presumably to reduce fire risk”.

Now a different tale from the bowser, courtesy of Stephen Hunt of Roseville: “A story from the old country. The filler cap on the Humber Super Snipe was concealed behind one of the rear reflectors. A gentleman pulled into the filling station and asked for his Humber to be topped up. The garage attendant enquired where the filler-cap was, and was informed ‘behind the rear reflector of course’. The attendant pulled off the wrong reflector and proceeded carefully to put four gallons of premium fuel in the boot.”

“To those drama queens discussing the positioning of filler-caps on cars. You do know that the hoses attached to bowsers stretch easily to the opposite side of the car, right?” posits Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown.

You almost had us, John Ure of Mount Hutton: “Talking of cardigans (C8), many years ago, while a police detective at Newcastle, I was driving home from Sydney one day on the old Pacific Highway and overtook a slow-moving car. As I passed, I glanced across and saw that the driver, an older lady, had her arms through the steering wheel and was knitting! I was horrified. ‘Pull over’ I yelled. She just smiled and said ‘No dear, it’s a cardigan’.”

“Before we became a nation of quaffers, in the ’60s and ’70s, Grange (C8) was about $20 a bottle,” recalls Robert Hosking of Paddington. “Well, I wasn’t going to spend that, even on my date, so it was always that nasty St Henri at $12. Any other time, it was mostly flagon red at $5. Ahhh, sophistication.”

“Nola Tucker’s mention of Ben Ean Moselle reminded me that my wines of choice back in the day were Kaiser Stuhl Cold Duck in summer, Blue Nun for romance and a carafe of claret, any claret, to give the impression of worldliness and sophistication.” We thank Michael Fox of Taigum (Qld).

“I noticed a mention today at a local RSL club of a group calling themselves Girls Boardrider Fraternity,” says Helen Howes of Collaroy. “Why would the girls describe themselves as a brotherhood? Perhaps Girls Boardrider Sorority would be more apt?”

Column8@smh.com.au

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