Our first Saturday night at Sheffield University in the1960s,several of us new students went out together to a local pub and observed tradition by getting drunk.
When the chucking out bell rang we all staggered off to a local Indian restaurant. After having our fill and making a nuisance, ran out without paying. It's traditional.
The following Saturday we did the same. Got drunk in the same pub .
Then went to the same Indian Restaurant . To our surprise the owner, knowing who we were, let us in, providing we paid the outstanding bill.
This format went on for 3 months before we found a different pub and curry shop.
10years later in a street near the university, a smart young Asian kid stopped me and said hello Jerf. I must have looked puzzled, he told me that he was the son of the owner of the restaurant we used to run out of and still owing for the last meal.
Embarrassed, I apologised profusely. He said his dad and all the staff looked forward to us going there. I told him that his dad must be a good person. He said yes he is but he is also a business man.
He used to gather up all the scraps left by previous diners, chuck them in pan and lob in a handful of the hottest curry powder and that's what we got, pigs swill and paid for it.
Our University education did not include street smarts.
