childhood memories

[blakey79]

My Dear mum had a 1976 VW Golf LS, right up to 1990, the amount of money my parents spent on it, respray, new wings, new engine, I still have flashbacks and think how my life would be different if, when she picked me up from school then proceeded to drive past my mates, a horrific sound, schhhhhrrreeeecccchhhhhhh, only the exhaust.... darn thing fell off, right in front of Helen Warren as well..... I didn't live this down for, O I don't know 4 years.....

 

However there is an upside, when my dad used to pick me up from school, he had a 1981 Audi Coupe GT, Everyone thought it was a Quattro due to the 5 cylinder warble, who am I to correct them ?

[vulgalour]

The only car I've been in from childhood I wouldn't get in again is my Grandad's old Mk2 VW Jetta, I think it was a blue one with a brown interior, but that could be wrong.  The door wouldn't shut properly when I got in so Mum gave it a right old slam to make sure I was safely inside the car.  It wouldn't shut properly because my fingers were in the gap!

 

Dad's had some right old crocks over the years and some have broken spectacularly but not a single event puts me off them.  Even riding to the circus in the back of a family friend's Bedford CF van that had stacks of tyres and park bench for rear seats seemed perfectly fine to me then, not sure I'd risk it now!

[scruff]

God loads of memories, but bad ones not so much. 

 

During the early 90s slump in the building trade mum and dad were skintola and we had a hand-me-down-from-nan-and-grandad Mazda 626 like this for a few months -

 

 

It was that blue with one shit brown door and lots of rust... my middle-class classmates whose parents had new company Beemers etc ripped the piss, so as a youngster I hated that car.

 

The only other thing I really hated was one of my grandad's trucks - he was a builder too and had an old Cabstar like this,

 

when I was about 8 I was left strapped in the passenger seat while he went into a paper shop and the bloody thing started wandering off into oncoming traffic. Luckily he came back in time but it also had a horrible smell to it and I struggled to get in and out as a nipper. He replaced it with a 4x4 "King Cab" Datsun 720 which he ran for bloody years and which was excellent, much better than his old Land Rover but strangely it was the LR I fell in love with (and later bought off him).

 

Hospital transport for me was I think dad's Hillman Hunter, vividly remember picking my sister up in '86 in mum's yellow Mk 2 Escort estate.

[MrDuke]

The only unpleasant memory I have, and it's not really a 'bad' one, is of my Grandad's Harvest Gold Allegro estate. Partly because the colour actually made me feel nauseous up close, and even at the age of 5 I couldn't fathom why anyone would actually want to put it on a car, let alone buy one like it. And partly due to my Grandad's worrying driving habits - he'd driven flatbeds for a living most of his working life, and just treated all cars as if they were HGVs - I still have vivid memories of him slowly feeding the quartic wheel through his hands and double-declutching as he rounded a gentle corner at 20mph, while shaking his head and tutting at the numerous cars which came tearing past at well over 30.

 

 

EDIT: being a bit OCD with grammar, I was just about to rewrite "Grandad" with a lower-class g, when it occurred to me that "Grandad's Harvest Gold" is infinitely more awesome than what BL actually called it. (except reading it like that would make it my Allegro, which it sadly wasn't. My brother inherited it and let it rot away in his garden, which is what happened to at least 75% of his cars.[/digression])

[Squire_Dawson]

The thing I remember about cars in general from childhood was the sheer diversity of them about. Transport was more interesting back then, infact I dare say life generally was more interesting. I also remember walking to and from school alongside a main road, the stench of exhaust fumes was incredible. This particular memory stuck with me as you just don't get it anymore, such has been the increasing clampdown on engine emissions.

 

Grandad had a blue FIAT Uno, I vaguely remember he used to curse the wireless as one of the control knobs was very temperamental.

[vulgalour]

I'd forgotten that smell!  You're right, traffic is a lot less smelly these days.

[scruff]

Level crossings were the best/worst for a bit of fume inhalation. 

[Guest Breadvan72]

 

 

EDIT: being a bit OCD with grammar, I was just about to rewrite "Grandad" with a lower-class g...

 

 

What's wrong with a middle class g, eh? 

[chaseracer]

...past my mates, a horrific sound, schhhhhrrreeeecccchhhhhhh, only the exhaust.... darn thing fell off, right in front of Helen Warren as well..... I didn't live this down for, O I don't know 4 years.....

Which brings me neatly back to the aforementioned Avenger...

 

After the Owd Giffer bought the Rekord for his weekly cross-country blasts from the Malverns to the Bedfordshire flatlands, the Hillman passed to Mum and enjoyed a relatively easy life.  For a short while.  Then I passed my test, and full advantage was taken of the 1600 motor and RWD handling.  Then my sister passed her test, and before too long equally full advantage was taken of the crumple zones as the car lost an argument with a Precambrian schist hillside.

 

But it did its job well and Pippa was completely unhurt.  The problem arose when Dad & I went to drag the wreck back home... through the middle of a crowded Great Malvern on a busy Saturday... where many of my friends were...

 

[ShiteRider]

I need mind bleach now...

I asked my mum earlier what i was brought home from the hospital in, quick as a flash "Magnum coupe"

result!

"Oh no, hang on that was your sister, er....erm..i think you were the white fastback"

bollocks..

"No, no, that's what you were concieved in! Hang on let me think."

WTF! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK MUM!

" Yeah i remember now, you were the triumph, a 2 litre estate. It was lovely, maroon colour with a grey interior. Your dad got rid of it because he didn't like automatics"

It turns out the triumph was a fuel injection, so was most likely 2.5PI. It appears my old fella had three of these triumphs at the time the estate and two saloons this would have been the summer of 1984, and would have been the last of the many triumphs he had owned as he then spent the next 20 odd years in vauxhalls.

Wish i'd never asked now.

[dangerousdave]

I remember my uncles triumph 2000 we all used to go on holiday normally to cornwall my uncle would have the trailer on the back and I used to use the middle armrest in the back as my seat and watch this trailer all the way there

 

I also remember been in the air cadets they had this Sherpa minibus obviously passed down from the raf  which was nicknamed the curry bus as it had had a curry spilt in it at sometime everytime we went anywhere in it you could watch the road through the holes in the floor and I remember once going to visit police traffic hq in that with no tax or mot couldn't believe they never noticed

[oman5]

My dad is no longer around to ask but I think I was bought home from hospital in either a PA cresta or an FC 101.

Dad had no interest in cars, buying whatever happened to be cheap and available. at least until I started buying cars. I passed a few onto him that he got very attached to, lavishing unheard of amounts of money on them to keep them going. (sd1 2600, audi 100 2.2)

[gordonbennet]

Christ on a bike some of these have triggered old long forgotten memories.

 

Mum must have hated me now i think about it, she slammed me fingers in the taxi door one day, then another time shut me thumb when she gave the train door (remember those close fitting wooden buggers weighing in at half a ton) a right good slam, see Childline didn't exist then so no compo for me.

 

Ran out from in front of the school bus when i was 5 and got splattered by a passing Messerschmit !! (speeling) bubble car, didn't do me good looks any good, cahp who hit me came round to see me after i got out of hospital, he bought me  a Lone Star diecast Ford Thunderbird so i thought he was great bloke, seemed to take a lot of interest in me mum now i think back...good dent in the front bumper of his bubble car, no damage at the back mind where half the skin on me clock got removed on the back bumper...pity no videos about then must have looked hilarious.

 

Dads employer, dad was the head gardener, had a new DB6 Volante, so got to ride in that  few times when i was about 14, and Jenny the posh kids nanny had the longest legs ever made and wore the briefest skirts and always dressed to please, phwoar..can still see those legs...thanks Jenny, i've been a leg man ever since and no one has come up to your standards or showed 'em off quite so well.

 

Dad used to wash the Aston, he tried to put it back the garage but the gearbox would only select D not R (nope other way round), Michael the gaffer wouldn't believe his car could go wrong so jumped in and floored it and narrowly missed taking out one of the statues.

 

Big sis taught me to drive when i was about 8 on the private estate roads, Wolseley 1500.

 

Strange childhood being in a family in private service, long gone now that lifestyle.

[mercrocker]

Good reading that, GB!   The overwhelming memory of any childhood pain and suffering was basically that it served you bloody right for not looking out!   I very nearly ended my days under a PC Cresta doing the classic ice cream-licking-all-the-way-across-the-road from the Mr Whippy Karrier van.   Didn't tell me mum as I  would have  got a right bollocking.... She asked what the screech of tyres outside was all about and I  told her Mr.Harris  had  nearly run a cat over.   Took the enjoyment right out of that 4d cone!

 

More pleasant memories include my Grandad (now I have  been made socially aware of the capital G status!) having his Wolseley serviced by the local garage.   The owner/mechanic used  to leave his Austin Chummy in Grandad's Garage (we were super posh - NOT) and take the Farina off.  I was allowed to play (sit) in it as long as I  didn't touch anything and its crudity and smallness was really appealing, as  was the smell.   

 

School transport was pretty interesting back then,  too.  Most days we were expected to walk  but  if it shat with rain a friendly neighbour often gave us a ride, mainly Consul Classic, Austin Hereford or a 300E Thames  van.     

[Fatchance]

Thank you for allowing me purge memories which have been suppressed for over 30 years now. In 1973 my parents decided to get a second family car with more after-school activities putting pressure on the family timetable and transport resources.

 

£280 from the trade-ins to clear section acquired a 1966 D-reg Vauxhall Viva HA in starting-to-fade-and-rust-white. The detestation from the moment I set eyes on it grew yet stronger 1/4 mile from the dealer's after buying it, as it ran out of petrol. ("Although the tank's showing empty there'll be plenty to get you across town and home"). The vile confection refused to die over the ensuing 7 years, passing MoT after MoT despite having a floor held together with a wattle-and-daub mixture from its previous home on a farm. It's party trick was to snap clutch cables, usually in the most inconvenient places, and as the years passed and its steel to rust ratio reversed, it took on a curious "salvaged trawler" look. I used to ask my parents to drop me one block away from school, on the pretext of making it easier for them to avoid traffic, but in reality for me to avoid the ridicule of my peers. I sat and passed my driving test in it (subject of a post on another thread), having done a lot of driving practice in it, I suppose based on the premise that the car, myself, and my mother were, in that order, all expendable.

 

By 1980 it dawned on my parents that the value of our, and the other houses in the street, might be adversely affected by the rusting hulk on the pavement outside, so it was traded in for a 1975 Escort 1100L 2-door in disco-funk orange red. With the addition of a Ghia-esque slab of wood on the dash this was luxury in comparison.

 

Apart from exiting my life, the only thing the Viva did right was fail to depreciate heavily, £90 part-ex allowance being put against the Escort, so £190 loss over 7 years. 

[twosmoke300]

My transport home from hospital was a ex water board mini van. Living the dream !

[Asimo]

I came home from hospital in this BSA M20 outfit, along the A55

 

 

I didn't want my son to come home in this

 

 

so I got this (set a good example etc)

 

 

It didn't make the right impression on him. At 33 he still has neither car nor licence.

[chaseracer]

Apparently I went to hospital (still snug & warm inside the Mothership) in the sidecar of a Triumph 650 combination, but came back along the North Wales coast road in a grey 1964 Mini van.

#OMGH&SPHAIL

 

[eddyramrod]

I believe I came home in a Bedford CA van.  I was a bit young to notice, sorry.

[Shep Shepherd]

I was brought home from Kent and Canterbury Hospital in November 1977 in Grandfather Shepherd's gold 1972 Vauxhall Viva SL 2-door. I was very nearly born in a family friend's 1974 Rover P6 3500

[fordperv]

i remember when i was 7 my dad was out and i ran up the driveway as fast as i can, tripped over and smacked my head off the slabs, my forehead instantly doubled in size on one side, an elderly neighbor called frank (who was a shiter in his day) took me to the hospital with my mum in his gleaming white 1.3l mk3 cortina which was a p reg, when we got to the hospital i was more bothered about going in his cortina than the bump on my head

 

frank was always maintaining and polishing this cortina it was his pride and joy, he passed away doing what he loved which was tinkering he was doing some work on a moggy traveller for his friend and he had a massive heart attack, i was gutted he was like a member of the family

[bub2006]

I was bought home from hospital by being placed in my pram,pushed outside to my dads transit and me and the pram put in the back and strapped pram wheels with straps behind passenger seat. Doctors told my mum it was slow labour. Off father goes to work. Wasn't as slow as they thought! A childhood memory that has haunted me is from when i was 14. Around 2001. I was expelled for setting school fire alarms off. My dad didn't punishe at all but he did something much much worse. On the day that i went back to school he had to have a meeting with the headmaster at 9am. He drove me to school in a fluorescent yellow A reg transit mark 2 with purple wheels,bull bar and roof lights and some sort of dragon motif on the side. The school car park is in the middle of the school so all classrooms can see this hillbilly wagon roll in. Dad gets out takes key out the ignition but the old engine ran on. While walking away it let out a huge bang and switched off. Kids where so cruel

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I was brought home from hospital in a Thames 400e pickup with a paraffin tank on the back.

My oldest in 1987 came home in C 340 SPK a pink 3.4 XJ6.

Next one in 1990 was G64 PFC a blue 300SE.

Next in 1993 was a Rangie Brooklands,(can't remember the reg it was a loan car)

Next in 1998 was a C reg Audi 100 1.8 Avant (guess who'd not got company cars anymore!)

[warren t claim]

I've not contributed to this thread due to wanting to get my facts correct by consulting Claim_family members.

 

I am now embarrassed to say my first trip in a car was a short journey from hospital to home back in March 1970 in a fucking Vauxhall, namely a Viva SL registration WDM676G. I blame myself 'cos if I was born on my due date it would of been an Ark Royal Zodiac 2.5 V6 and Love Grows by Eddison Lighthouse would of been number 1 at the time but due to the utterly shit timekeeping that I still have to this day I'm now tainted by my first ride in a car being a Vauxhall and Wanderin' Star by Lee Marvin being the chart topper at on the date of my birth.

[dangerousdave]

glad I started this thread love reading these posts a couple more I remember when I was 3 we had gone to visit my grandparents one day and I tried going down those steps made with flagstones on my little plastic tractor and fell off cutting my head open I remember dad and granddad rushing me to hospital in dads mk3 Cortina

 

the other one is one of my uncles used to live in Castleford and I used to love going to visit him because he had an Austin maxi in his garden which I could play in

[sierraman]

Does anyone remember when they were a kid going on a long journey and pulling over to let engine 'cool down'

[Junkman]

No, I'm too young for that.

[bub2006]

I remember my dad having to pull over to let car or gearbox cool down in a 240 2.3 auto glt estate. Some steep hill near Torquay. 2 adults 5kids,2 dogs and a 20 ft caravan with 2 weeks luggage and food etc for all of us made the old girl start to smell a bit. Mind you car was only 10 years old at the time. Think it had 3 speed box on that one too. G215 gct where are you now?

[sheffcortinacentre]

dave that explains sooooooooooooo much.

[Ghosty]

Does anyone remember when they were a kid going on a long journey and pulling over to let engine 'cool down'

 

Sort of, yes! Back in the mid-2000s when Mother Ghosty had aforementioned sad face Fiesta 1.25 LX auto, and Old Man had a Smoke Silver (metallic beige) Merc 190E with a brown interior, we drove to London a few times as a family for Christmas etc. One Christmas we were heading down the M1 in the Fez, me rather uncomfortably on the smaller part of the split rear seat, with the rest of the space taken up by our stuff in bin bags (not suitcases, blame Mother Ghosty, I'm suspicious she has OCD). Anyway, the Fiesta's thermostat dies, and it's using a lot of coolant. We had to go back home from Leicester Forest East services taking it easy to avoid HGFing the Fiesta and go and get the 190E, stopping every so often to fill the car with water and/or coolant. The journey in the 190E was much, much better, and it was the better car for the job, but it was always hard to get Mother Ghosty in it as she had back problems and liked her Fez more - she didn't do any of the driving in the 190 on attempt number 2 (I think she used it all of about 3 times in five years), but shared with Old Man in the Fiesta.