Where And When Did You Grow Up And What Sort Of Wob Lived On Your Street?
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:30 pm
It may come as a bit of a surprise to you but I actually had quite a decent upbringing in a respectable middle class suburb.
Our house was the first on the left with the stained glass window and Yaris up the driveway.
Let's go back to between 1970 and 86.
The strange this is that although every family had a car the road was deserted during the day, no two car families.
Next door to us lived the Ingham family. Dad was thoroughly respectable and owned a 1973 Rover 2000 in the usual beige. Sadly his only son wasn't so honourable and his dad bought him a newsagents after he was thrown out of the police for dishonesty. Not long after his dad died I was woken to hear a row between him and his mother where he was demanding the P6 as a reminder of his father.
Next door down was the Shepherd family. I was best mates with their son who was two months older than me. To start with they owned an Avenger estate followed by a brace of Vauxhalls. Firstly a P reg Mk1 Cavalier in beige followed by a metallic green T reg Carlton auto and finally a Royale saloon on a V. The dad owned a shipwright business and occasionally we'd be treated to a lift to school in the back of his push started BMC J4 van, a vehicle I'm still a bit obsessed with today. They were the only "seat belt" family in the road, wearing them long before it became law.
Next door down lived "Buttons" Morell along with his wife and son Julian, He got the name Buttons due to being a sales manager for YKK zips and had a company Mk3 Cortina 1.6 XL facelift on an M plate that he covered an astounding 70,000 miles a year in.
The house opposite is more interesting. Mrs Peach first lived there and owned a blue Avenger saloon. Sadly she was a shit driver and was forever scraping it against her gatepost or reversing it into one of our cars. After she moved out a young couple moved in. He was a rep with the obligatory Mk3 Cortina 1.6L and his fit blonde missus drove a 1971 Austin Healey Sprite. They were what you would now call swingers and the husband introduced his bit on the side to a member of our family while shopping in Asda! They moved out less than two years later only to be replaced by the Jones family. He was a chief engineer in the merchant navy and they owned a 1972 Datsun 240K Skyline that was replaced by an Alfa GTV then a Lancia Trevi before he quit Italian and bought a Stratos Silver V reg Cortina 2.3 Ghia auto estate, a nice bit of kit at the time. The happy drinking culture of his family meant that he was usually on a driving ban but didn't really care as he was away at sea most of the year. One memorable evening he managed to outrun the plod in said Cortina meaning half a dozen police cars invaded our road looking for him! He escaped by hiding in the loft.
Next door to them lived Mrs Hall, my English teacher and her daughter. Her husband owned a Riley Kestrel but every day Mrs Hall was picked up by another member of staff, Mrs Rathbone the music teacher, in her red Fiat 126. Mrs Hall's daughter had a boyfriend who drove a white Mk2 Cortina with a black vinyl roof and one night decided to surprise her by stripping nude up our driveway awaiting her return. Sadly Mutha_Claim saw him first, rang the police and by some twist of fate I got top marks in school that year.
Moving next door lived another teacher family from another school, the Morgans. They were big VW fans and owned a succession of Beetles, something that rubbed off on the family because I bumped into their son a few months ago and he's got a Passat and a T2 camper.
I think that's enough from me, your turn now!
Our house was the first on the left with the stained glass window and Yaris up the driveway.
Let's go back to between 1970 and 86.
The strange this is that although every family had a car the road was deserted during the day, no two car families.
Next door to us lived the Ingham family. Dad was thoroughly respectable and owned a 1973 Rover 2000 in the usual beige. Sadly his only son wasn't so honourable and his dad bought him a newsagents after he was thrown out of the police for dishonesty. Not long after his dad died I was woken to hear a row between him and his mother where he was demanding the P6 as a reminder of his father.
Next door down was the Shepherd family. I was best mates with their son who was two months older than me. To start with they owned an Avenger estate followed by a brace of Vauxhalls. Firstly a P reg Mk1 Cavalier in beige followed by a metallic green T reg Carlton auto and finally a Royale saloon on a V. The dad owned a shipwright business and occasionally we'd be treated to a lift to school in the back of his push started BMC J4 van, a vehicle I'm still a bit obsessed with today. They were the only "seat belt" family in the road, wearing them long before it became law.
Next door down lived "Buttons" Morell along with his wife and son Julian, He got the name Buttons due to being a sales manager for YKK zips and had a company Mk3 Cortina 1.6 XL facelift on an M plate that he covered an astounding 70,000 miles a year in.
The house opposite is more interesting. Mrs Peach first lived there and owned a blue Avenger saloon. Sadly she was a shit driver and was forever scraping it against her gatepost or reversing it into one of our cars. After she moved out a young couple moved in. He was a rep with the obligatory Mk3 Cortina 1.6L and his fit blonde missus drove a 1971 Austin Healey Sprite. They were what you would now call swingers and the husband introduced his bit on the side to a member of our family while shopping in Asda! They moved out less than two years later only to be replaced by the Jones family. He was a chief engineer in the merchant navy and they owned a 1972 Datsun 240K Skyline that was replaced by an Alfa GTV then a Lancia Trevi before he quit Italian and bought a Stratos Silver V reg Cortina 2.3 Ghia auto estate, a nice bit of kit at the time. The happy drinking culture of his family meant that he was usually on a driving ban but didn't really care as he was away at sea most of the year. One memorable evening he managed to outrun the plod in said Cortina meaning half a dozen police cars invaded our road looking for him! He escaped by hiding in the loft.
Next door to them lived Mrs Hall, my English teacher and her daughter. Her husband owned a Riley Kestrel but every day Mrs Hall was picked up by another member of staff, Mrs Rathbone the music teacher, in her red Fiat 126. Mrs Hall's daughter had a boyfriend who drove a white Mk2 Cortina with a black vinyl roof and one night decided to surprise her by stripping nude up our driveway awaiting her return. Sadly Mutha_Claim saw him first, rang the police and by some twist of fate I got top marks in school that year.
Moving next door lived another teacher family from another school, the Morgans. They were big VW fans and owned a succession of Beetles, something that rubbed off on the family because I bumped into their son a few months ago and he's got a Passat and a T2 camper.
I think that's enough from me, your turn now!