Whilst on a walk, VE Day 2020 (with son aged 12 and daughter aged 15)
SON: VE-PPE, VE-PPE, VE-PPE. Have I made up a new tongue twister?
ME: No. It might be contemporary, but it’s even more boring than ‘Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry’
DAUGHTER: Hey, Dad – do you remember when you taught me ‘I’m not a pheasant-plucker, I’m a pheasant-plucker’s son – and I’m only plucking pheasants, till the pheasant-plucker comes..?”
ME: You did what? When was that?!
HUSBAND: (slightly abashed) Oh yeah…
DAUGHTER: Yeah. I remember it really clearly. I was 8 and we were walking to school. You said “but for goodness sake whatever you do, don’t say this to your teachers.”
ME: She was EIGHT?!?
DAUGHTER: Yeah. And it was only a couple of years ago actually, that I finally realised what it actually meant.
ME: I can’t believe you did that…
HUSBAND: (Defensively – to me) It’s literature! Poetry! You should approve!
