It was presented to us at school as the most important practical task that had to be mastered before leaving. And much to everyone`s amazement the school (famous for forcing you to write in Italic, and not start sentences with err `and`) produced an actual tap.

We had no sex education at all - but everyone could strip this `decades old and never seen water` tap.

So you were considered `OK` fit for discharge.. - those were your `practical skills` - along with being able to create a stool to sit on, with a woven raffia top.You would have been a king in certain cultures with those skills and a constant supply of raffia. What happened to raffia? Did we cease to import it?

Great thing about the tap though. You couldn`t expect the education system to know that rubber would soon improve and tap repair would fall by the wayside. It gave us a taste for doing things yourself - and we soon started working on our own motorcyles (we ALL had one) and then cars.

It just seemed `normal` not to give money to someone else.

You should have seen our mate, the plumbers son in class though. Grinding his teeth in the `tap lesson` knowing that his father`s trade secrets were being put into the public domain.

oilrag

Edited by oilrag on 02/07/2010 at 15:43