Me da

Walter Mason
Oct 23, 1912 - July 22, 1996

Taken on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

North American readers will remember (and possible still be doing this) having huge numbers of some lawn ornament (it started with flamingos, then began to include other critters) put on a person's front lawn on their birthday. The critters would be put in place during the night, so that it was a complete surprise in the morning. Usually with a sign with some sort of mildly embarrassing message, such as "Dave is over the hill. Happy 50th!" or some such thing. I don't know if this oh-so-dignified practice has sprung up anywhere else in the world or not.

I take you back in time to October 1992. My father was about to turn 80; no small milestone. As any of you who've tried to buy a gift for an 80-year old knows, it can be a tough assignment. They often have pretty much everything they need. And I'd bought books and CDs and, as his eyesight was failing, books on tape until they were pretty much coming out his ears. I needed something different to mark this event. I live about 1,000 miles from my home town, so arranging a big family party was out as I couldn't afford the plane tickets home. It would have to be "Operation Penguin" then.

My evil plan worked perfectly.

I found a flamingo/penguin planting company back home and set it up. On the morning of his birthday, Dad was sitting in the kitchen window (the one you can see behind him) with his morning tea, when he noticed that the cars driving down the street were slowing down, with people smiling and pointing at the lawn. From his vantage point, nothing was different. He stood up, looked out the window and thought, "What the...???" Just then his phone rang and his neighbour across the street asked if he knew he had a dozen penguins on his front lawn and who on earth had put them there?

Who, indeed. He knew immediately, of course. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.