That Fox

I knew a man once who trained recces in Walvis Bay -- for deployment in the Angolan war. Recces were known both for their ruthlessness and skill. They were the advance parties. This trainer had been a friend of my father's before he died. Somehow my father came up in conversation. He said, "That fox!" Which is to say, my father was a very cunning man. OBSERVATION: That description stayed with me because, while my father was an affable and gregarious man, he was also very cunning. For instance, he knew what "went down" in his parish, and he knew how, and who. And he himself would characterise people as animal species -- he was a farmer's son -- which made this reverse characterisation so memorable, too.