23 Last Memories of Loudon's Father

Loudon's father was a major in the British Army. Around 1957 before he died, when he was terminally ill at Bexhill, he confided in his daughter-in-law Alice, who had been a nurse: "I have been told I have three to six months to live. I can't have cream or whisky. What would you do?"

Alice replied: "I'd do what you are doing now."

He said, "Thank you, my dear."

Alice says, "He drove a car, ate food, and enjoyed himself. He lived about four months longer and died at the 9th (last) hole of the golf course.

"He was walking up the slope to the last green. He put his bag down, sat down beside it, and fell asleep."

Loudon adds, "I still have his golf bag - I gave it to our son Robert. Golfers don't like schoolboys. Golfers are very anti-social."

Angela thinks: This was news to me. I'd always thought that golfing was social because you walk around in groups, unlike card playing, with poker faces. Even bridge is notorious for bad tempered bridge players, sitting in silence, stuck in wheelchairs, staring at their hand of cards, playing for money. Angel opens eyes wide in surprise. "What do golfers do that's anti-social?"

Loudon: 'Don't trespass, on my patch."

Angela: "What about bridge players?"

Loudon: "Bridge players are worse."

Alice: "My mother would not play cards.