The Great Strike!
Arthur on the right in subsequent years, clowning around with his younger brother Nick at an outside dinner table.
The story goes like this… it was Christmas Day at Marly’s Cottage, sometime in the late 1940’s. All the adults were seated inside at the dining room table where roast dinner was on the menu. There were around ten kids, which included the Cooper, Haggitt and Young offspring, all seated outside at a dining table. Much to their disgust, they were served up… not roast dinner, but stew! And to make matters even worse, cousin Susan Haggitt, who was younger than Arthur Cooper, was invited to dine with the adults.
Unsurprisingly there was a fair bit of disgruntlement going on, and the thought of a younger cousin dining at the adult table certainly was not right in young Arthur Cooper’s book. Something had to be done!
Therefore, Arthur decided to stage a strike. He instructed his siblings and cousins not to eat anything. After a while their Grandfather Poppop came outside to see what all the fuss was about.
Arthur registered the protest with his Grandfather Poppop, who having been of high military rank, was well used to handling disgruntled men. In fact he had been designated to help create order in the dispatching issues of Anzac soldiers at Sling Camp in England at the end of WW1, so he was well qualified at sorting out disputes. This however, was a different kettle of fish with this bunch of misbehaving grandkids!
Having listened to the protest and reasoning from Arthur, he stood there and burst out laughing. He could see the ‘high spirited’ Arthur had a fair bit of initiative and he thought it was a hell of a joke. He admired initiative.
So the kids won out. They were given 5 pounds to go down the road to the corner dairy and buy themselves goodies such as chocolate. Susan Haggitt has since indicated in later years, that as much as Arthur didn’t think it was fair that she was dining with the elders, she, at the same time never wanted to even be there!
The big question remains … did Susan get any chocolate?
Cooper brothers, Nick and Arthur still clowning around at the outdoors dinner table at Otaki. No wonder they weren’t allowed inside to eat! Note: Arthur would have been about 12 years of age at the time of offending.