My mother, Alice, sometimes, but only if I am desperate since I also have to accept that she will give stuff away to old people, her cronies, and leave it to me to discover a hole in the stock. Usually it doesn’t amount to much, an armchair or a lamp, mostly things of a practical value, heaters, light bulbs, that sort of thing, so Alice’s days on are known in my books as ‘charity days’. Her great friend Alma Martin is my most reliable ‘staffer’ though he’d scoff to be thought of in those terms. Still, it’s some relief to know that he will act as a handbrake whenever my mother’s largesse gets the better of her. In his time Alma has been many things—rat catcher, teacher, artist. Back in the heyday of NE Paints he was one of the better colour technicians. Most of the colours slapped on to the older houses around the district dating back to the late fifties are his creation. The popular Bush Green and Mount Aspiring Grey are but two. He is often mistakenly credited for Pacific Blue, the relief colour of choice that was all the rage around the time the walls of every house found the need to display a large butterfly.
