Chaos in the streets!

Another practical joke.......Installment number 3.

My grandfather, Arthur Collins,  drove a black saloon car and my Grandmother sat faithfully and trustingly beside him in her flat, wide brimmed, black hat with a real fox fur around her shoulders.....horrifying in today's world but common place in the early 1920's.

He was a successful businessman but a hooligan at heart. She was a perfect lady.

Pietermaritzburg in those days was mainly sand roads. Instead of robots or traffic lights at the main intersections there would be a traffic policeman on a box waving his arms at the few cars there were, bossing them about, my grandfather thought, quite unnecessarily.

One quiet afternoon he was driving up towards the intersection and he noted the policeman on his box in the middle of the road ahead of him. Grandfather indicated with his arm out of the car window that he intended to turn right.

The man on the box beckoned him on straight towards him, with a grand gesture. Somehow his elaborate style irritated the wicked side of my grandpa 's nature. He drove up to the policeman and turned his car to turn right so that the front bumper almost brushed the box on which the policeman was standing.The officer, quite red in the face with anger, put up a hand to stop Arthur. At the same time he bent over almost double to stare my grandfather in the eye, and shouted,

 "Mr Collins you are not allowed to cut in front of me." As Arthur edged forward, ignoring the policeman's instruction, he raised his voice and shouted "Mr Collins  STOP!

........ you have to go AROUND ME!"

Bowing his head as though sorry, my grandfather reversed a few metres and proceeded to go around the policeman.............and around him ..............and around him several times in a circle while other vehicles came to a dead stop.

With a wave of his hand out of the car window, he  finally took the turn to the right and vanished down Longmarket Street.

The red faced  traffic officer, sweating with frustration by now, was left to sort out the cars that had collected around to enjoy the joke. They all knew Arthur Collins for his often public jokes, and tooted their horns to show their appreciation.

Next time.......A hippo called Huberto!

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