Page 18 - IT'S A RUM LIFE BOOK TWO "BOSTON 1960 TO 1970"

“Not a word to a soul, I will telephone them that you are
coming.” He concluded.
The van had gone in for a “service”. Plus new sump and
complete exhaust system that could be see dragging along
behind. Most of the other van excursions paled into
insignificance after that.

MINI ON THE MOVE AGAIN
The only other one of note was a winter trip to Wragby
with urgent print material for a client of the General Printing
department. I was coming home after the delivery, late for tea
and driving in thickish fog down that same long seven mile
straight road back to Boston. (The same road of the “Principal
van story”).
Some readers will remember the era of good old steam
trains and how at one time they were the backbone of our
transport system in Lincolnshire.
Railway track and their countless crossing gates criss
crossed the landscape hither and thither. One line crossed this
long straight road at New Bolingbroke.
(A village that was to become my home long in the future).
You can probably imagine what was to come.
No, the mini-van did not become impaled by its radiator on
the crossing gates, but only by a whisker!
I was concentrating hard all the time with headlights
picking out the “cats eyes” in the fog. The van was moving
fairly quickly and there was no other traffic about especially
coming from the opposite direction. Nothing at all!
I realised that we were passing some houses and just as the
“cat’s eyes” disappeared in the gloom, I remembered………
Railway crossing!
It all added up, no traffic, houses at the side, cat’s eyes
finishing. Apply brakes!

18