Misadventures Read Online Free Page A

sell them for scrap and buy another one.
    I can remember a trip to Clacton on Sea in an old Ford. I held a piece of silver paper in the battery on the floor to keep it charging. If I had not done so we would have slowed to a halt. I did not see much of the countryside as we travelled to and from the coast.
    I nearly had an accident in one of Mick’s cars. He took a sharp left which forced me to lean on the passenger door and it flew open. He grabbed me just in time to prevent me falling onto the road.
    Mick bought a large blue Bedford van and placed a seat beside his for me to sit on, but he didn’t nail it to the ground. All was well until he made an emergency stop at the traffic lights. My seat fell backwards and I sped along the floor until I hit the doors. Once again Mick reached out to me. He seized my right ankle and pulled me to my original position.
    After one evening out we were returning home in another old car when it ground to a stop in Forest Road, Walthamstow. We were lucky to find several men to push us down the steep hill by the Fire Station, whilst Mick worked the accelerator and clutch. We coasted down the hill but the car refused to start. We pushed it into the kerb and Mick walked me the short journey home. The following day his father setout to repair the vehicle and discovered we had run out of petrol.
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    Mick was the lead guitarist in the Dave Clarke Five shortly before they became famous. He was not happy with the band. He told me, ‘I’m altering the music sheets to fit all the instruments but I don’t get any more money than the others. I’ve seen Dave about it but he won’t pay me. So I’ve said I’ll be leaving as soon as he finds a replacement.’
    A few months later The Dave Clarke Five made the hit record, ‘Glad all Over’. Mick was very envious.

1961
L INDA W
    Linda and I worked as office juniors for the same engineering company. We were both sixteen and began a friendship that still exists today. I knew her before she met Dave, her husband. They had three children and emigrated to Australia in 1979. After twenty-six years of marriage and three grandchildren they divorced. They now have new partners.
    E very evening Linda and I would travel home together. We usually caught the same bus and sat upstairs. Linda would pay the minimum fare but this did not cover her full journey. The conductress finally realised. When Linda remained seated at the last stop covered by her ticket the conductress climbed the stairs and said to her, ‘You’ve only paid for half the distance you want to travel, haven’t you?’ Linda blushed furiously but remained silent. The conductress rang the bell and said, ‘You can get off at the next stop.’
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    Linda and I went on a shopping trip down Walthamstow High Street in search of underwear. We entered a draper’s and an assistant came forward to serve us. Linda said in a very loud voice, ‘I want a pair of drawers.’
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    I paid Linda and her young family a visit in the tiny tumbledown house they were living in. Dave was finishing his dinner at the dining table in the small lounge whilst the three children played on the carpet. Linda decided she needed to be on the other side of the room, but her two-year-old daughter was blocking her path. She lifted her leg over the child. As she was wearing Dr Scholl’s sandals the body of the shoe hung down giving Pamela a hearty whack on the head. Pamela cried. Linda and I laughed. Dave said, ‘Try to be a mother, Linda!’
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    Linda decided she would like to learn to knit. She was very ambitious, choosing a sweater for Dave as her first garment. She completed the front and back and put the two pieces together to measure them. She found one was three inches longer than the other. Linda thought this was easily rectified. She picked up the scissors and began to chop off the surplus length. She was quick to