Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO you remember the old-style, almost verbatim reports of council meetings filling columns of your newspaper?

I can assure you that some of the committee meetings were just as boring for us reporters as the reports must have been for the readers.

But some of the meetings did have their moments of drama and even comedy.

One such was a meeting of the old Barry Borough Council where the Town Clerk was a sombre, almost Dracula-like figure by the name of Mr J Clement Colley.

Reporting on an application for a permit to use King Square, Barry, for a public gathering of the Hare Krishna movement, he told members: "I don't know who he is, but the applicant is a chap by the name of Mr Hair Krishna.

My colleague Alec McKinty, who was the local Echo reporter, went into a paroxysm of laughter, sparking me off too.

We then spent the next few minutes trying not to look at one another while suppressing a fit of the giggles that only ended when I made a bolt for the door and the safety of the corridor where I laughed myself silly.

Eventually I was able to return to the press bench, somewhat embarrassed under the studious gaze of the many councillors who had presumably also never heard of Hare Krishna and did not see the funny side of things at all.

Thereafter, when meetings were even duller than usual, I would amuse myself by conjuring up a picture of the venerable Mr Colley doing the Krishna chant.

However, I am happy to report that the Hare Krishnas were granted their permit, and I trust that they enjoyed their day out!

* Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Mal's Memories are on the Penarth Times web site: www.thisispenarth.co.uk