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Monday 7 January 2008

The Bow Street Runners

On New Year's Day my hubby referred to our grandson as a "Bow Street Runner" because he kept running to either his mum or dad and telling tales on his grandad for eating all the Quality Street (we were at our daughter's house for tea).

I hadn't a clue what, or who, the Bow Street Runners were.

Hubby jumped up and cheered.

"You mean to say that amongst all the crap and useless debris stored in your brain you never learnt about the the Bow Street Runners at school?"

"No." I shook my head looking blank.

He opened Emily's front window and shouted out to the world (admittedly he had sunk at least four cans of Carling):

"I finally know something she doesn't. Yeahhhhh."

He jumped up and down a few times, punching his fist in the air at the open window. I hope no-one saw him - he's got a bad enough reputation already!

All our grown-up kids and their partners knew - or pretended they knew - what the Bow Street Runners were. Was I REALLY the only one who didn't know or were they teasing me in my "four Martinis and a glass of Snowball" fog of cluelessness. (Is that a word?")

Now - I need to find out and no cheating. Who else will admit to not knowing - tell the truth now and promise you won't Google it before replying!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I havent a clue??? Tell me? I feel very dim now!
Hope to see you on the 30th!

Annieye said...

Apparently they were the very first CID - plain clothed policemen - in Victorian times and the office they operated from was in Bow Street.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know that.
I knew that policemen were sometimes called 'peelers' after Sir Robert Peel.

Annieye said...

Mother X: I googled it afterwards and found out what they were.

Captain Black: Umm - you seem like a clever bloke and if you didn't know either then methinks I was having my tipsy leg pulled big time by hubby and kids.

Karen said...

I did know, bizarrely. I seem to remember them cropping up at school - not literally of course! Mind you, there are many, many more things I don't know :)

Annieye said...

Karen - that's where Rob said he learned about the Bow Street Runners - in a history lesson at school. He takes a perverse pleasure in the fact he went to a much better school than I did!