|
 | |  | |
In 1961 I was living at my mother's house in Forest Gate, East London (along with my wife Margaret and my baby daughter, Donna), wrote Bob Margetson. I was 23 years of age and had just bought my very first car, which was a 1938 black Y-type Ford, registration number CXC 189.
I paid £10 for it. There were no MOT's at the time hence my driving the car with faulty brakes and bald tyres. I loved my little car and was very proud of it. The best feature of the car was the black paintwork, as it would gleam when polished. The car had a spare wheel, which was attached to the exterior of the boot lid. It had a black vinyl roof, which had had its day and was worse for wear and would leak when it rained.
Several days after buying the car, my brother-in-law (Peter) asked me to do him a favour, which was, would I take him to Hadleigh in Essex to visit his brother who had just flown in from America.
I agreed to take him, his wife Rose (my sister), their baby daughter Susan and my mother at the following weekend. We set off on a dismal Saturday morning, although it was dry it was a dull and cloudy. We got to Hadleigh without incident and had a nice day with Peter's brother and family.
We left later that evening to make our way home. It was now pouring with rain and the roof of the car began to leak. Although the leak was mainly at the rear nearside of the car the rest of the car was dry. The problem was that my mother was sitting in the back of the car and was getting soaked.
I pulled into a lay-by and got an umbrella from the boot of the car and handed it to mum. We continued our journey with mum now holding the open umbrella up to keep herself dry. Being a small car it was rather cramped with the five of us in it, but having an open umbrella inside as well didn't improve matters!
Somehow I then got lost on our way home and it took me quite a while to regain my bearings. We were travelling along the A12 and were just going through a village called Writtle when a police patrol car pulled me in.
I got a ticket for having no current road tax, speeding through the village and was threatened to be fined for having bald tyres, faulty breaks and wiper blades that were not operating as they should be. But when the police officer peered inside the car and spotted my mum sitting in the back holding up an umbrella it made him grin, so he must have took pity on me by not charging me with any of the said offences, apart from my having no road tax. I got a £5 fine for that! It was almost midnight when we finally reached home.
My brother-in-law never asked any more favours from me after that incident. Can't imagine why?
| |  | |  |
To add a comment you must first login or join for free, up in the top left corner.
|
|
