Page 98 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

(Picture of similar Bedford TK lorry.)

The car was so far under the lorry it
would not just pull out again.
They need a bigger brake down lorry
to lift the Bedford off the remains of
the 1100 saloon car!

Michael eventually arrived at the
testing station just before they closed
for the day!

The lorry passed its test amid immense interest from all concerned as Michael took great
care to relate the tale in full!

CHAPTER 17

ALBERT AND THE ‘LAND CRAB’ (Austin 1800)
They say many t/v scripts are drawn from real life happenings and this one is truly worthy!
About this time Albert had been with us as our No 1-lorry driver for about 4 years.
Michael my brother in law, about 18 years old or so was our mechanic. During his early
youth, Michael had always been getting into “scrapes” of one sort or another and while
working for our family business he was attending day release at college.

We were engaged in mainly general haulage by this time. Our nucleus was collecting
commercial tyres with problems and transporting them to the Tyre Manufacturers
Conference. A complaint adjudication body owned and operated jointly by all the major
tyre manufacturers in Great Britain.

Albert was mainly “on” potatoes. We had a contract with John Hobster and Co a leading
Potato merchant in Boston and ran their No6 lorry.
This meant that every day the sixth load and wherever it needed to go we took it and were
paid appropriately by the mile. This was normally to the big nightly wholesale produce
markets around the North of England. Blackburn, Leeds, Team Valley (Newcastle) and
sometimes Birmingham.

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