24-05-2020, 10:10 AM
I think we are all more than aware that nostalgia is a big part of what drives us in our hobby,or mania as some people like to call it, I just thought that I would put down a few musings on the subject to see if anything would seem familiar to anyone. My earliest and quite vivid memory is of my grandfather or grancha as we say here in south Wales, driving me down the back lane and stopping to go back into the house for something he had left behind, and leaving me in the car with the engine running stood on the back seat a very small four year old and watching the key fob sway with the rhythm of of the engine. this is such a strong memory for me it almost plays like a video in my mind and the car was almost certainly a RP saloon. Where we live if your not going up an hill you are probably going down one, not the best place to be driving old sevens that had seen some neglect, I remember several occasions being dumped out of the car with my 15 year old uncle and my nan and told to push because off the clutch slipping on really steep climbs, I can,t drive any of those places now without thinking about the antics that took place there. In the late 1950s this car was stripped of parts and left in the lane behind the house and as kids was our plaything for several years, it was replaced with a very nice Ruby from the local Austin agent Stan hughes of Bargoed , my nan used to be very proud of this car and talked about it often when I was young and she always used to say that the car was reboarded as a condition of the sale and being so young I always thought that they had put a new floor in it !!!. The couple of photos I remember of the Ruby are long lost so I don,t know the Registration number but if you have an old brown or green log book with the name Robert Albert Chidgey in it please let me know so stay as safe as you can and keep going best regards Rob.