My granny once threw a pound of mince at the telly. I know this to be true because I was there at the time. I can even recall what I was doing before witnessing this wanton act of vandalism. I was assembling a jigsaw, and if my memory serves me correctly the completed puzzle would have resembled a thatched cottage with a variety of wild life rambling round it. But I digress. My granny threw a pound of mince at the telly. Now I have to confess I had never seen her behave like that before. Normally I associated her with making clootie dumpling and serving cups of tea. Aiming projectiles at the most expensive item in her sitting room was a new one on me. Alas what she was doing with mince in her sitting room I cannot tell but suffice to say it was there.
The reason for her angst was the wrestling; namely characters who went under pseudonyms like Giant Haystacks, Big Daddy, Mick McManus (actually I think that was his real name), – grown men who cavorted about wearing swimming trunks.
Before she launched her dinner I heard her muttering inaudibly. But then she got louder. At one point she even raised herself off her chair and pointed at the screen calling the referee something I didn’t understand. I was very young at the time. Nevertheless I believe that this behaviour was not uncommon throughout the country on a Saturday afternoon, although maybe the mince throwing incident was.
People of my granny’s generation tuned into the wrestling religiously. It was entertainment but it also caused her, as well as many others, to witness the blatant injustice and foul play often inflicted on the underdog – the ‘clean’ fighter, the one who followed the rules. Of course the wrestling may have been stage-managed but my granny was not going to put up with any of that underhand nonsense in the ring; and that was her motto throughout her life. She stood up for the underdog and spoke out against the injustices imposed on those who couldn’t find their tongue.
She reminds me of a man who did something similar but I don’t recall him ever throwing mince at anyone.
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