Transport. A necessary evil...

Most of us have had a tricky car at some stage in our lives. You know the ones with a personality and moods (and temper tantrums!). I had a very leaky car for a while but it had excellent drainage; a friends car used to need occasional hot wiring she was very good at it, I never asked where she learned this skill. Another friend had trouble with headlights, a jolt from a pot-hole would make them go off, but they came back on with the next pot-hole - practised patience, strong bowels and gumption were required for any form of speed at night - those second pot-holes were not always easy to find in the dark!

One that stands out in my mind was a short lived car of my Dads, it wouldn’t start very well, went like the clappers, with the odd back-fire, braking optional and only locked on one side so needed to be parked against walls. Lateral thinking caused my Dad to build a ramp up which he would reverse when he returned home for the evening – a starting ramp if you wish and on many occasions he got enough of a run so the car would start. One time I was woken early and asked to help start the car, it didn't get enough of a run, unfavourable wind conditions perhaps? – I was given the option of pushing a heavy old car with my eighteen stone Dad in it or attempting to start it while he pushed it; he was a heavy smoker at the time and I a very novice driver. I said I'd rather be a cripple than an orphan so I pushed him, a vision in my nightie I'm sure.

I was being dropped in to town to meet a friend in this same car and asked if they would drop me a distance away to avoid being seen in the car. I wasn't easliy embarassed but this car was special, very special. I went and met my friend and little while later we were doing a bit of clothes shopping when a very loud bang occurred outside, my friend, ever the alarmist, asked “My God, has someone been shot?” I said “I doubt it” as I studiously ignored my parents glide by the shop window in the back-firing beast.