Page 220 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

everything for £500.

We did the deal, loaded the little red truck into the back of the “curtainsider” and drove
home, (about 200 miles).
We hadn’t had time to tell my wife Ruth! She was the wage earner in our marriage!
She was expecting me to be at home and coward that I am I asked John to phone her and
explained that we had been delayed.

EXPLANATIONS
He explained it like this.
“We’ve been held up.”
Ruth,”held up where?”
John, “In Lancashire.”
You can imagine Ruth’s tone, “Lancashire!!” she choked” “Where are you now?”
John, “Well, somewhere south of Ferrybridge on the A1.”
John was not one to let it all out at once.
Ruth, “What are doing on the A1?”
John, “Well Keith is driving a lorry!”
Ruth, “A Lorry? What on earth is he driving a lorry for?”
John, “Well, we’ve bought it.”
You can imagine the explosion at the other end.
“What do you want a lorry for?” or words to that effect followed.
John, kindly finished with something like, “Keith will explain when we get home,”
Before the phone at the other end was dropped loudly!
The explanation was relatively easy after I had the rest of the journey to think about the
“problem”.
“Well you see,” it went, “ John and Terena………….. and finished with something about
the Land Rover wrecking the express train and us not wanting to do something similar!

All seems to have ended well so far, as in March, Novartis at Immingham approached us
to do a display at their summer celebrations in July and sent us a cheque for £400 in
advance!
In fact it has been a good thing as we have been to three displays using the lorry and
trailer and even managed to dislocate my shoulder at one in the process!

THE SADDLEBAG STORY

This tale comes from about 1998 when I was using an old 400cc Honda Superdream
motor cycle for all my travels. This included delivering all the promotional leaflets and
posters for the Horse Centre in the springtime. I travelled throughout the whole of
Lincolnshire, down south of Peterborough, out to Norfolk and then west into most of
Nottinghamshire and north up to Hull, Beverley and across to the Yorkshire coast.
All on different days you will understand!

220