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When I was 16, in 1957, said Pete Hatton, I started as a telegram boy for the Post Office at Weybridge. I had to go to Epsom for a fortnight for training to ride the red BSA 'Bantam' motorcycle, it was the middle of winter and snowing and we drove up and down Box Hill and Leith Hill in blizzards.
We stopped in the Metropolitan area for a cigarette - another learner, the instructor and myself. We then fired the bikes up and the other two went off. I looked over my shoulder, let out the clutch - and the bike went backwards!
I tried again, using all the gears, but the same thing kept happening. The others came back and asked what I was doing. I told the instructor that the bike would only go backwards and he told me not to be so b****y silly!
He got off his bike and onto mine. By now an amused crowd had gathered, including two coppers. Sure enough, the same thing happened to the instructor. Then a speed cop arrived and the instructor told him I'd broken the bike (in not so many words!)
The policeman told him to stop the engine, get off and push the bike forward in gear. He explained that, rarely, the piston can stop at the top and when the bike was restarted could go either way. Sure enough, off I went forwards again!
As a telegram boy I worked in the area by Shepperton Studios and St. George's Hills - an area where many celebrities lived including Spike Milligan. I would often have to pick up scripts from him and one day I came off my bike in thick fog in front of his house. He came out and asked if I was alright. He always tipped well! On one occasion he hadn't finished working on a script and invited me in for a glass of squash; and I got a 10 shilling tip.
He then told me to ask for a certain person on the gate at Elstead Studio, which I did, and as well as another 10 shilling tip, I got a note to go to a bungalow on the other side of the road which was the restaurant, where I got a free meal. I also delivered to or for Bernard Brayden, Charlie Drake, Norman Wisdom (who lived on the Silverdale Estate) and Tom Jones.
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