Page 28 - Demo

26of the bottles behind the bar %u2013 blue, green, red, yellow %u2013 the colours didn%u2019t matter. Actually, I don%u2019t remember much else of that evening for some reason. Must be my age, I guess.Anyway, what does stick in my mind is the famous suggestions book that there used to be in that Mess. Two entries in particular. It seemed the Mess was also home to a number of single lady teachers. One had become concerned by the speed with which officers entered and left the Gents on arriving in the mess, and that they then went straight to the table loaded with food for tea, in the Ante-room. They clearly had not allowed time to wash their hands. She suggested in view of the hygiene problem, with these men then handling the cakes and sandwiches, %u201ccould tongs be provided?%u201d The PMC wrote: %u201cTongs will be provided in the Gents%u201d.We understood that he later explained to this teacher that all the men were doing was hanging up their hats.The other suggestion, to which I cannot recall the answer, was %u201ccould a visit be arranged to the laundry, as I would like to see the machine which tears the buttons off my shirts and fires them through my handkerchiefs%u201d.Martin JohnsonBy George,I%u2019ve Won the Lottery (I think)When we engineer officers graduated from Cranwell and got our Commissions, there was insufficient room in the Officers%u2019 Mess there for all of us. This problem was solved by housing us in the Officers%u2019 Mess at RAF Spitalgate, then the home of the WRAF. In our day the RAF tended to be a male preserve and girls were relatively unusual. Imagine our joy after 2 1/2 years of an all-male environment being in a Mess full of ladies. We all loved it, and so, I expect, did the ladies. In fact quite a number of us ended up married to WRAF officers.