Uncle Jack lived in a small village and was a regular in the local pub.  It was one of those pubs where someone often had something to sell, a ticket for the big match, or in this case a suit.  Maybe Uncle Jack mentioned that he needed a new suit, anyway, a tailor who was drinking in the bar, offered him a quality made-to-measure suit at a knockdown price.

As promised in a week later the tailor brought in the trousers, they were a great fit and the latest cut, 'very smart, very rakish', his wife said.  The jacket followed in a few days, and there was even a waist-coat.  So far so good.

Uncle Jack was passionate about his cars and 40 years ago many people - like Uncle Jack - did car maintenance themselves.  When his car broke down, there was no-one else to fix it and being in his best suit, would not stop Uncle Jack crawling underneath the engine to repair the starter motor. In fact in our family, 'doing an Uncle Jack' meant repairing a car in your best clothes.  I always suspected that this was the reason why Uncle Jack was so tempted by the chance of a new suit.

Uncle Jack's Bus Journey

With this background, you may be able to jump ahead and guess why Uncle Jack would need to take the bus to work.  On the Sunday, his car sheared a half-shaft and thus was beyond a quick fix repair.  Actually, on this fateful Monday, his wife was pleased that he was taking the bus and he was less likely to 'do an Uncle Jack' and ruin his newly acquired, very sharp suit.Uncle Jack's bus journey

When Uncle Jack got on bus, he noticed two people behaving slightly oddly, and to his  surprise, both were wearing suits just like his.  Well, it was a double-decker bus so what would you do next?   Uncle Jack went up stairs and was aghast to see a dozen more people, all dressed in exactly the same suit as he was wearing.  Since this was a country bus, taking the morning workers into the big city, there would no other bus for two hours.  So, Uncle Jack knew that there was nothing he could do but sweat it out until he reached his office in the city.