I am going to start with a car (almost) the three wheeled Messerschmitt, or bubble car. Do you remember them? They were made between 1955-1964, very space age when you look back at them now, completely inappropriate as a family car but probably they should be reinvented for our solitary bubble we all need to occupy now;)
What struck me was the sports car parked at the back, we had something similar at home, at least it belonged to my glamourous stepmother and occasionally she would pick up my brother and me and we would be taken out to tea after school. The joy of this car was that it had two seats in the boot for children, and there we would sit in the fresh air, signalling away to the cars that were following, much to their annoyance. My grandfather always had Rovers, leather lined their interiors always smelling of cigars, his wife, my stepmother, (okay it was a difficult household) occupied my life from the age of about 6 years to 12 years old and she was distant and cold. But she shopped here at Beatties, my slightly scandalous family always brought out the gossip of the shop assistants much to my embarassment.
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| Beatties department store in Wolverhampton, here is where my two stepmothers would shop, now taken over by John Lewis |
Nowadays people have 2/3 cars at home in those days it was not so but I could not wait to get my own car and it arrived just before my birthday, a second hand black Ford Prefect, rolled up the driveway quietly at Christmas to greet me in the morning.
This car was soon exchanged for my first mini, I had about three, nothing like the flash models of today, there was a hole in the bottom of one and another would always slowly come to a halt in the rain when the distributor cap got wet, but I loved my minis until I was able to afford my sports car, an Austin Healey Sprite. Sadly I only had it for a couple of years, as I got married and then my baby bump would not fit behind the wheel!
So on hunting around my mini van on holiday in Ireland.
I love the idea that those Messerschmitts were made using the jigs for the plane cockpit. I think they were part of the post war German recovery. I always wanted one as a kid.
ReplyDeleteDid not know that, no wonder they look like space craft. Did not last long, though better than the 'Reliant Robin'
DeleteA friend of mine had a Ford Prefect, 3 gears - our latest car has 6. With Prefects and early Minis you were in no doubt it was you that was driving, not like now when Samantha Satnav controls the speed, balances the suspension, smoothes your breaking and tells you which way to turn.
ReplyDeleteYes it was definitely the days of cars you could drive properly, now it is all like a plane, flashing lights and computer warnings to scare you. Also all models look similar.
DeleteTo open our first Mini when getting out, it had some sort of wire pulley thing rather than a handle. And when driving through large puddles a lot of water seemed to get inside!
ReplyDeleteMy Dad had a Rover - leather everywhere and a little draw with fitted tool tray. Good memories
Ah Sue those were the good old days, when your car leaked and the windows stuck, still if you have manual gears they still crunch when you hit the wrong one. Rovers were the workhorse of cars, now the expensive land rovers that zoom around have the same work ethic.
DeleteMy grandfather had a car with a window that got stuck, it was a blessing when my father shut the boot with the keys inside, it wasn't a hatchback. He managed to remove the rear seat and get into the boot! These cars are a bit before my time but I do remember travelling in mini's with holes in the floor, you felt every bump in the road too, no seatbelts either, so heads often hit the ceiling.
ReplyDeleteObviously the Mini had a reputation for letting water in. Your father should have had a spare set of keys of course. I suppose he managed to open a window, cars were easily got into.
DeleteI like the last picture of you with your skirt on while out by the water. We always wore dresses or skirts when we were going out anywhere. Now I never wear dresses or skirts. Love the photos of the older cars. They look much different than the cars of my youth in the US.
ReplyDeleteJust bought myself a skirt the second winter one in my wardrobe. Jeans and cords are the things I put on every morning, it is almost a lazy habit. Times have changed!
DeleteI remember seeing the bubble cars around London when I was young. Always seemed like one could just tip them over with a good shove. Given the speed of traffic (not to mention distracted drivers) these days and the huge size of lorries here in the US, I can't imagine driving a one-seater (like some of today's smart cars). One bump and you'd be squashed like a bug. Speaking of which...my first car was a VW bug.
ReplyDeleteYes they would never survive on the motorways, some lorries are the size of small liners. Actually I liked the ;olden days' cars had style!
DeleteWhen \i was teaching Thelma my Deputy and I always did our food shopping after school on Fridays in Beatties Food which was below ground. Then we would have afternoon tea - usually something called 'American Salad' - before going home, They sold out to House of Fraser some years ago and my Wolverhampton friend (who now lives in the Lakes) tells me that this week Beatties has closed.Quite sad really. Do you remember how they used to have lit up Christmas trees all along that balcony every year
ReplyDeleteYes I remember, also the trolley buses we caught as children. In the square in front of Beatties was an 'Olde World Tea Shop' where we got treated to tea and delicious toast. We were always starving.
ReplyDeleteYour remark about the mini coming to a stop when the distributor got wet took me back umpteen years to my childhood when I went on holiday to Wales with an aunt, in her mini. It poured and poured with rain while we were there but that didn't stop my redoubtable aunt from exploring the area, although it did bring the mini to a standstill on more than one occasion. I have vivid memories of her standing at the side of the road in her rain mac spraying some kind of "magic" substance into the open car bonnet. I never have found out what the spray was except that for some reason astronauts had taken the same stuff to the moon with them, and it did the trick of getting us going again in rainy Wales.
ReplyDeleteThat was a lovely story Anne, I just used to sit it out, lived out in the countryside, so there was not much help around, shame I did not know about the 'magic substance' around.
ReplyDelete