Uncle Peter (Skipper) never did things by halves, when he did something it had to be substantial to say the least. When he sold his house down in the fishing community and moved to the north side of town he did something he had always wanted to do, installed a massive flagpole and flew the union jack or any other flag that suited him on various days of the year such as the red ensign on Nelsons birthday and such like.
Anyway Peter had a complaint from one of his neighbours across the road from his house that the flagpole, being actually 15 feet taller than his two story house was way too big and looked out of place, she put a letter into the council and sadly Peter had to cut his flagpole down by the said 15 feet to comply with building regulations.
Following this Skipper was not amused and a few days after he had to chop off the top of his famous Flagpole he then displayed nautical flags such as we had used at our school the Graham Sea Training School for Boys.
To be honest it did look a bit odd as the flags went from the front of his door up to the top of the flagpole and were then secured to the other side of his driveway. Many people asked what the message said but Skipper never let on.
Finally however he had the council round again telling him he had to remove the offending flags, Skipper then showed them the byelaws that confirmed that he had every right to erect the flagpole and as we lived in a sea town he also had the right to use the alphabetic maritime flags if he wanted to.
"Yes". said the council man "Its not the flagpole or the flags that have upset your neighbour this time but it is the actual message that she has finally deciphered which reads".....
BUGGER OFF YOU MISERABLE OLD WITCH GO AND BOIL YOUR CAULDRON AND LEAVE MY FLAGPOLE ALONE
Good old Skipper :-)
