Aefra's Challenge - Sorry Jill I Must Need Shooting! (More Motors Forum)

Member Name: ks.h

Product:	More Motors Forum
Date:	25/11/03 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something to smile about

Disadvantages: None

So many challenges are going around at the moment so I've decided to offer my contribution to Aefra's challenge about a motor that brings back memories.

For me cars are a means of getting from 'a' to 'b' and not much more, I'm not really bothered what it looks like, how fast it can go or how much it cost, however I do remember a time when our car was my pride and joy.

In the late fifties my parents bought an Austin 12, Austin were still building pre war model cars until about 1947 when they introduced their new model, I think that was the Austin 16, so our Austin 12 must have been about ten years old when my parents acquired it.

I was just starting school and our car was a dream, we were the only family in the street to have a car, there was one other family who had a motorbike and sidecar but that didn't carry the same prestige, and all of my friends thought we must be very rich - this made me very popular.

Susie, that's what we called her, was a big shinny bottle green monstrosity with plush brown leather upholstery, running boards along the side and amber indicators that flipped out like little arms. She was built like a tank.

I was one of six children and the car easily sat four on the backseat and there was room for two stools between the back and front seats so we fitted in with ease - no safety belts in those days, but then most of the roads around us were more or less country lanes and we didn't know what a motorway was.

Susie used to take us everywhere - outings to Scotland, Seahouses, Holy Island, Durham, the Lake District and many more places. There would usually be one of my brothers, my younger sister, myself and a couple of friends in the back with the boot full of bats, balls and a picnic hamper.

Although we all loved Susie dearly, and actually thought of her as human - one of the family, she was probably nothing more than a rust heap. I have memorie
s of many breakdowns when Dad would get out of the drivers seat, open the boot and rummage around for the starting handle - yes if the ignition didn't work you could crank up the engine.

I'm terrible at remembering car registration numbers and out of all the cars my parents had and I have had Susie is the only registration I still remember, KVK 247, even now I would have to go out to the drive to look at the registration on my present car.

I can't remember how long we had Susie, I know she was with us for a good few years and I do remember the feeling of loss when she eventually gave up the ghost and went to car heaven - my younger sister and I cried for days, well at least until Dad came home with our next car!

So there you go that's my fond memory of a car for Aefra - if you have one then get writing about it.

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