The family car

A friend has just got a new car, a hybrid, and I’ll be interested to hear how she likes it and what it’s like to drive. We have no plans to change our car, a Vauxhall Meriva, even though we’ve had it a while and there are various things I don’t like about it. The thing I dislike most is the doors are rear-hinged, which means that they open the opposite way from normal back doors. It’s supposed to make access easier, but I think they are dangerous, as when you’re trying to exit, it’s difficult to properly see what traffic is coming past from behind. However – in every other way it’s ok (mostly!)

The car we had previously to this, one was a Zafira, and I absolutely loved it. I found it easy to drive and to park, comfortable, spacious (it could seat seven) and really reliable. I can’t remember the other cars we’ve had over the years, but I vividly remember my first ever car which was an Austin A35. The first ever car mum and dad bought, when my sister and I were young children was also an Austin A35, so it seemed a happy coincidence that I got the same. The family A35, which we called Aussie, was green.  Cars in those days (or at least reasonably priced ones) were very basic. There was no heater – which seems extraordinary now, and we had to wrap up warm in winter because it was like a little ice-box.

The worst experience with the cold was in the terrible winter of 1961/2 when our family set off to visit my dad’s brother and family. I’m not sure when we went, but we set off in our little unheated A35, knowing it would probably take about four hours to get from Cambridge to Sheffield. These days it would take about 2½ hours straight up the A1(M) in our modern cars with the better roads and motorways. After four hours we stopped and dad bought some glycerine from a chemist’s shop because the windscreen kept icing up – no heater of course to blow warm air onto it of course! Mum and dad asked us girls if we should continue or turn back to Cambridge. Of course to us it seemed like an adventure, and we had blankets round us and in those days we were more used to the cold. We are such softies now!

Dad found a telephone box and phoned his brother to let him know we were still en route, and we set off again. At that time mum didn’t drive so it was just dad, hour after hour. We must have stopped somewhere to have a toilet break, but I can’t imagine where, there weren’t the service stations as there are now. Maybe we stopped for petrol at a garage and they kindly let us use their facilities.  Eventually, eight hours after we started we arrived. I seem to remember we climbed up a long and slippery hill and when we got to the crest of the road, there below us, all brightly lit, was Sheffield. We arrived and our uncle and aunty were quite surprised we had actually continued, they felt sure we would have turned back! We were welcomed in, and I am sure we were soon sitting by a warm fire with hot drinks – and maybe something a little stronger for dad! We had a wonderful holiday, and for the first and only time we went sledging! More hills in Sheffield than in Cambridge!

My ffeatrued image is of my first car, not brave Aussie who took us all the way to Sheffield.