Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

A Yorkshire Almanac Comprising 366 Historical Extracts, Red-letter Days and Customs, and Astronomical and Meteorological Data

14 July 1969: A Leeds butcher buys his first car

Carcinoma Porpoise. 2023. My First Car. Interviews. Ed. Trevor ApSimon. Unpublished. Get it:

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Excerpt

A butcher needs a car. I bought my first car in 1969, on the Monday we got back from our honeymoon. We went to Benidorm and stayed in the Hotel Marina. It were just finished. Two weeks on the 12th floor for 20 pound, flights and food included, and you could get pissed for nowt. We went on a trip to a Spanish village with women in black sewing by hand. Just like Leeds, they said. The car were a Ford Escort. I must have had 20 since. I’ll get another SUV when the lease runs out next year. Massive, it is, but I still get it in the garage. I mainly use it to go down to the bookies. It’s not cheap, but nowt is. The neighbour comes up, and we watch television the three of us in the kitchen. It’s warm there. If I hadn’t a car, I’d be able to get up the stairs and pay for the fags. But you can’t get a sheep on the back of a bicycle.

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

  • ER: East Riding
  • GM: Greater Manchester
  • NR: North Riding
  • NY: North Yorkshire
  • SY: South Yorkshire
  • WR: West Riding
  • WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

A butcher needs a car. I bought my first car in 1969, on the Monday we got back from our honeymoon. We went to Benidorm and stayed in the Hotel Marina. It were just finished. Two weeks on the 12th floor for 20 pound, flights and food included, and you could get pissed for nowt. We went on a trip to a Spanish village with women in black sewing by hand. Just like Leeds, they said. The car were a Ford Escort. I must have had 20 since. I’ll get another SUV when the lease runs out next year. Massive, it is, but I still get it in the garage. I mainly use it to go down to the bookies. It’s not cheap, but nowt is. The neighbour comes up, and we watch television the three of us in the kitchen. It’s warm there. If I hadn’t a car, I’d be able to get up the stairs and pay for the fags. But you can’t get a sheep on the back of a bicycle.

179 words.

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