IAN PAISLEY TO TEA

Roddy (to us), alias Winston (to his father) was in our class at
school and in our gang. Roddy was an only child, and as such, was
spoiled rotten, especially by his mother....He was inundated with
sweets, comic books, pocket money, lurid, tasteless clothes and was
treated to the cinema about 5 nights a week by his Grandfather.

To our envy, he also got frequent postal deliveries of comics, guns,
footballs and Marvelman T-shirts from doting relatives in far-off
places like America or Australia. Like all spoiled boys, however, he
treated the "spoilers," his parents, with disdain and periodically
abused them with incredibly offensive language.

From his father, Roddy inherited his enthusiasm for technical things.
Once we repaired his bicycle on the lawn (a puncture), as if he were
performing a surgical operation, with me, his attendant, assisting,
while he barked instructions at me: "3/8 ring! 7/16 open spanner!
Cross-point screwdriver! 3/8 ring!...."

From his mother he inherited (besides an expensive, knitted Balaclava
helmet for his chronic ear problems, which excused him from swimming
lessons) a passion for music, particularly, Scottish. He was proud to
be a drummer in the local Pipe Band.

His house was full of prizes, trophies and foto's of his mother in full
Highland regalia, kilt or tunic, doing Highland flings or sword
dances.

When I see Roddy, now, about once a year, he is gentler and more
mature, but we seem to have less and less in common. My last visit, he
boasted that he had had tea with the famous Rev. Ian Paisley from
Belfast. Roddy strikes me simply as a coarse-spoken, tattoes-sporting
Protestant fanatic, though. He is a father of four and turning
fat.

Roddy's distinquishing "fame," to me, is that he passed his crucial
matriculation examination, which might have enabled him to go to high
school and on to university, but he turned the opportunity down! He
elected to go to a trade school, which prepared him for a job as garage
mechanic. To my parents, it seemed incredible, that a 10 year old boy
was allowed to make a decision, which aborted his career (for no better
reason than "no hard studying," or some temporary gratification, etc.)
Even more incredible to me was the fact that his "soft" parents had
allowed him to, overbearingly and foolishly, overrule and overwhelm
their better judgement, as any spoil, difficult child (but child, none
the less)might, sadly, be permitted to do.