The Seventies

The seventies sucked, says Sam. Except for the pastries at the Paekakariki tearooms. And you could walk along the railway lines and collect glass bottles. You could get eight cents a bottle, and four sherbet fizzers for a cent.

The Paekakariki chemist, says Sam, had the most unique organising system in the world. It worked on the principle that if you put one of everything everywhere, people would be bound to find what they wanted. There were no two items the same in any one place. The man behind the counter was skinny and cadaverous. People said he had page 142been training to be a doctor, but failed his final exams. He can't have had much business, Sam reckons, because he would always tell people the best cure was seawater.