It’s Bill and Ben, the dustbin men

THE PIECE about Fred Holmes who became wedged in a bin (Mail) made me laugh and brought back some happy memories of my own. I was a school secretary for 24 years and frequently joined in Book Weeks, Red Nose Days and other celebrations with the children. My colleague, Mrs lynne Bundock, and I had such a lot of fun dressing up for these occasions, but one event in particular still makes us laugh. One afternoon when the school day had ended and most of the staff and children had gone home, the two of us dressed up as The Flower Pot Men to do our bit for Book Week. We mounted a cut-out picture of a large sunflower on a pole and placed a drawn ‘likeness’ of the headteacher in the centre to represent the character ‘Weed’ who also featured in the Tv programme; we trusted he would see the funny side! Then, together with the school finance officer wielding his camera, we headed for a couple of bins that stood outside one of the classrooms, the closest we could get to a large flowerpot. In we climbed and the photograph was taken, after which our somewhat reticent photographer — alas — left the scene. Because when we tried to climb out, we found we were completely stuck! We daren’t shout for help as one of the teachers was conducting parent interviews in the classroom next to the bins; we feared what those parents would think if they found us in such an unbefitting predicament. And soon we were starting to panic somewhat! Fortunately, in the nick of time, the caretaker appeared and, with extreme difficulty, managed to extract the pair of us from the bins! So we certainly sympathised with the hapless Fred Holmes! Mrs. B. oldmeadow,

Sheerness, Kent.