Harry Wakatipu Comes the Mong: Part 1

By JACK LASENBY

I was born the same year as the Napier Earthquake.

'Everyone called it the Year of Disappointments,' my mother used to tell me and laugh at my face. 'Can't you take a joke?' she'd chortle.

Each day at school our teacher used to ask, 'Why is 1931 called the Year of Disappointments?' She chuckled, the other kids sniggered. Gladys Tremble, who had blue eyes and wore puffed sleeves and red button shoes, stuck her head under her desk and giggled.

On the way home from school, Gladys Tremble said, 'You can kiss me - if you can spell disappointments correctly.'

When she heard what I spelled, she said, 'I'm telling on you!' and went for her life. Her mother got straight on the phone to my mother. And my mother gave me a hiding when I got home.

Publisher: Puffin

Price: $15.95

Age group: 10-13 years


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