Noddy Car.
I was talking to my friends on the Altered Art forum yesterday. They were reminiscing about their biker days. One of the girls has a bike at the moment, called 'Thumper'. Unfortunately Thumper broke down and caused a whole list of catastrophies which went on throughout the rest of the day. Hence the discussion about biking memories.
As I have already said elsewhere in this blog, I am a disabled person, and so the only thing I could contribute to this journey down memory lane, was my stories of my Noddy car. Noddy was a fibreglass, three-wheeled invalid carriage, powered by a 250cc two-stroke engine. It had a tiller-bar steering mechanism which had a twist throttle and clutch lever. The gear level was on the floor of the car. I couldn't work the clutch with my hand so the 'boffins' attatched it to the gear lever, so that when I put the car into gear, I had to do it slowly to let the clutch out at the same time.
It did 3000 miles to the gallon - ok an exageration - but it went a long way. I could get 20 mph out of her, but I could not hear myself think at that speed. It would tip onto two wheels if I went round a corner too fast or at the wrong angle. It got blown all over the road in a wind, and puddles were just a no no.
Apart from the fact you could take nobody with you when you went anywhere, it would break down at the drop of a hat. In the days before mobile phones, or even cb radios, this could prove very very inconvenient. I always made sure I told people where I was going and estimated arrival times, then when I didn't show up they could sent out a search party.
A Shakey Start
I was 17 when it was decided that I needed this vehicle to get me around and enable me to travel to a job. It all had to be approved by a specialist at the hospital, then I had to go for an assessment to find out what adaptions I would need on the vehicle.
Eventually a letter arrived one morning saying that Midland Garage (dealers for our area) would be delivering a car on this date at that time, please be ready for a tutorial when they arrive. The tutorial consisted of the mechanic sitting on the floor of the car beside me showing me the contols and what I needed to do to make it go forwards and backwards. He then got out of the car and said "Go on, off you go". It was the most nerve wracking thing - I had no experience of the road at all. Anyway, I set off - a bit of kangaroo juice in the tank I thought, but I managed to get round the crescent without killing anyone and came to a stop outside my house. The guy then asked me to go backwards, which I managed for a few yards. All I had to do then was set off forwards back into my parking space. "OK, you are on your own now. Here's the paperwork and the phone number for when it breaks down - see you in a couple of days hahaha"!
I sat there for ages just looking at the road in front of me wondering if I would ever get up the nerve to set off on my own. Well, all I had to do was keep going forward and as it was a crescent where I lived, I would just end up back at my house again. So I set off and completed my second circuit successfully. I did this a few times, building up my confidence as cars, trees, people and animals remained unscathed.
Eventually, I decided it was time to take the car off the crescent and go further affield - to the next street actually, but at least it was away from our windows where I could see my brother having a really good laugh at me. Off I go, to the T-juntion, stop look right look left, all clear, off we go. Oh this is a breeze, so I go to the next junction and the next, turning right, turning left and around the village.
Then the inevitable has to happen, I meet a bus in a narrow road, and I am the one expected to back up into the 'hammer head' of a cul-de-sac. 'Alright', I tell myself, 'Don't panic, just take your time and try to look as though you know what you're doing'. I put the car into reverse and very slowley start backing up, but I had never reversed round a corner before, and the bus driver decided to start coming forward as I started reversing, unnerving me and I felt the back wheel start to mount the pavement. Instead of the hitting the breaks, in my panic I twisted the throttle - I mean, how can anyone mix those two up??? The next minute I am through someone's privit hedge and almost on their lawn.
The owner of the hedge and the bus driver had to pull Noddy out of the hedge, set me on the road again, pointing towards home. I couldn't think of any alternative story for explaining the lump of fibreglass missing from the bumber and the scratches which actually looked like the little branches of the hedge that I'd had the encounter with. I was frightened to death of the flipping thing by now.
I was talking to my friends on the Altered Art forum yesterday. They were reminiscing about their biker days. One of the girls has a bike at the moment, called 'Thumper'. Unfortunately Thumper broke down and caused a whole list of catastrophies which went on throughout the rest of the day. Hence the discussion about biking memories.
As I have already said elsewhere in this blog, I am a disabled person, and so the only thing I could contribute to this journey down memory lane, was my stories of my Noddy car. Noddy was a fibreglass, three-wheeled invalid carriage, powered by a 250cc two-stroke engine. It had a tiller-bar steering mechanism which had a twist throttle and clutch lever. The gear level was on the floor of the car. I couldn't work the clutch with my hand so the 'boffins' attatched it to the gear lever, so that when I put the car into gear, I had to do it slowly to let the clutch out at the same time.
It did 3000 miles to the gallon - ok an exageration - but it went a long way. I could get 20 mph out of her, but I could not hear myself think at that speed. It would tip onto two wheels if I went round a corner too fast or at the wrong angle. It got blown all over the road in a wind, and puddles were just a no no.
Apart from the fact you could take nobody with you when you went anywhere, it would break down at the drop of a hat. In the days before mobile phones, or even cb radios, this could prove very very inconvenient. I always made sure I told people where I was going and estimated arrival times, then when I didn't show up they could sent out a search party.
A Shakey Start
I was 17 when it was decided that I needed this vehicle to get me around and enable me to travel to a job. It all had to be approved by a specialist at the hospital, then I had to go for an assessment to find out what adaptions I would need on the vehicle.
Eventually a letter arrived one morning saying that Midland Garage (dealers for our area) would be delivering a car on this date at that time, please be ready for a tutorial when they arrive. The tutorial consisted of the mechanic sitting on the floor of the car beside me showing me the contols and what I needed to do to make it go forwards and backwards. He then got out of the car and said "Go on, off you go". It was the most nerve wracking thing - I had no experience of the road at all. Anyway, I set off - a bit of kangaroo juice in the tank I thought, but I managed to get round the crescent without killing anyone and came to a stop outside my house. The guy then asked me to go backwards, which I managed for a few yards. All I had to do then was set off forwards back into my parking space. "OK, you are on your own now. Here's the paperwork and the phone number for when it breaks down - see you in a couple of days hahaha"!
I sat there for ages just looking at the road in front of me wondering if I would ever get up the nerve to set off on my own. Well, all I had to do was keep going forward and as it was a crescent where I lived, I would just end up back at my house again. So I set off and completed my second circuit successfully. I did this a few times, building up my confidence as cars, trees, people and animals remained unscathed.
Eventually, I decided it was time to take the car off the crescent and go further affield - to the next street actually, but at least it was away from our windows where I could see my brother having a really good laugh at me. Off I go, to the T-juntion, stop look right look left, all clear, off we go. Oh this is a breeze, so I go to the next junction and the next, turning right, turning left and around the village.
Then the inevitable has to happen, I meet a bus in a narrow road, and I am the one expected to back up into the 'hammer head' of a cul-de-sac. 'Alright', I tell myself, 'Don't panic, just take your time and try to look as though you know what you're doing'. I put the car into reverse and very slowley start backing up, but I had never reversed round a corner before, and the bus driver decided to start coming forward as I started reversing, unnerving me and I felt the back wheel start to mount the pavement. Instead of the hitting the breaks, in my panic I twisted the throttle - I mean, how can anyone mix those two up??? The next minute I am through someone's privit hedge and almost on their lawn.
The owner of the hedge and the bus driver had to pull Noddy out of the hedge, set me on the road again, pointing towards home. I couldn't think of any alternative story for explaining the lump of fibreglass missing from the bumber and the scratches which actually looked like the little branches of the hedge that I'd had the encounter with. I was frightened to death of the flipping thing by now.
posted by Glynis at 4:00 pm
1 comments
