Cultureshock

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Video transcript

This story concerns my sister Jean who at the time of this event was 12 years old. She was, as usual, helping my mother prepare for a midday meal. Everything was going well, the joint of meat was in the gas oven and slowly cooking on a low to medium heat. Vegetables were now being prepared in the large kitchen sink by the window in the corner by my mother. Everything was going well, there was time to set the table and arrange the chairs in the dining room. The table set, it was time to revisit the kitchen and see how things were going. Automatically, Jean's thoughts were to check on the oven and this she did. But something was wrong. Jean peered into the opening in the bottom of the oven to see if the flame was alright. As she did, realising something was wrong. To her amazement the flame had gone out. Jean immediately called out for mother and said 'the flames gone out!'. In normal circumstances we would have thought that the gas had expired and gone out because another penny was needed in the meter, which was located under the stairs. To Jean's exclamation the 'the gas has gone out' my mother’s reply was simply 'well, light it up again'. It was common knowledge that when someone opened the front door and the back door of the kitchen was open, the draught created could easily put out the flame of the oven. That's what had happened. So when Jean struck the match consequently an almighty bang blew off the door of the oven. The mini explosion threw out the contents all over the floor. What a mess! As you can imagine, how Jean managed to escape being hit by the oven door I just don't know. Thankfully no one was hurt and Jean learned an important lesson that day. Never re- light the oven straight away.