An Act in a Backwater

In a sleepy county where the rhythms of life are dictated by the ticking clock of the club, Colonel Raymond strides through the heat of a June afternoon, a retired volunteer with a penchant for pomp and a heart that flutters at the sight of any woman. His flamboyant mustache, self‑styled “silver sabled” attire, and earnest attempts at grandeur—complete with imagined tales of Indian “tiffin”—paint a portrait of a man both earnest and absurd, beloved by some and dismissed by others as a harmless fool.

As the Colonel makes his ritual march to the Wroxton County Club, his interactions with the town’s residents—helping a nursery‑maid, teasing the plain‑spoken Miss Clifford, and anxiously awaiting a note for his noble relative—reveal a world of genteel social rituals and petty ambitions. The club’s smoking room buzzes with familiar faces, setting the stage for the Colonel’s latest quest for recognition among his “old cronies.”

Listeners are invited to step into this charming, slightly farcical slice of early‑20th‑century small‑town life, where humor and humanity collide in the Colonel’s well‑meaning, if misguided, endeavors.