Older readers will know that running 'classic cars' has to be a labour of love . Read through the for sale section of the popular papers dedicated to older vehicles is a journet through my formative years , anyone born in the fifties will be well aquainted with the Fords , Austins , Vauxhalls, Triumphs , we of that era can name Humber , Hillman ,Sunbeam ,Singer ,Riley , Standard ,Wolseley , Vandenplas , the marques that we remember from our youth , the cars we sat bored to tears in while Dad drove for 8 hours,loaded to the gunnells to get us into the wilds of Devon and Cornwall ,the huge crawling tailbacks we endured on the A30 before the motorways were built , the inevitable queue to get up Porlock Hill , the list of towns and villages to be ticked off as we motored nearer to the static caravan sited at Polzeath in North Cornwall - the stuff of dreams!
This is what we buy into , it's not the cars , exactly , it is how they anchor us to times we remember , ( even the Vanguard Sportsman with the knackered handbrake) , how we travelled and had to work at it , stopping to let the engine cool , making tea at the side of the road , hanging your bathing trunks on the wing mirror to dry , petrol three shillings and sixpence a gallon , put a tiger in your tank , ......this England!
No comments:
Post a Comment