This picture was taken on the old road between Aosta and Ivrea in Italy. I had been refused entry to the Autostrada the night before because the load was too high, so I drove down the old road a while then parked up until the morning, got the tools out and removed the exhaust pipes and other paraphernalia from the roof of the tractor cab. Tried again a few miles on but they still said it was too high. Just when I was arguing with the chief of the piaggio, my son Mark, who can just about be seen sitting in the tractor cab, calls out ‘what’s up dad’, and that done it for me. The Italians being so strong on family relented
and immediately waved me through.
Think I picked the diggers up in South Kirby, Liverpool and they were going to Modena. Note the air conditioning flaps just above the sidelight, open them up in the summer and you got a nice cool breeze up the leg of your shorts. I had that Volvo from almost new (one trip old) and the MQ in the windscreen was my nickname (Mary Quant…well I think it was Quant anyway) although the Italians called me Jesus Christ…see below!!!
I did an apprenticeship as an electrician before I received the calling and so I was often called upon to do running repairs on the road. This picture was taken outside Odino Valperga in Turin which is where we loaded the larger Ollivetti business machines. From left to right that’s me, Ken Barrett and Len Tiller.
Did they say Jesus Christo? very interesting post Dave, and great pics. The good simple ideas like those flaps would never be now, everythings got ot be complicated!
That air conditioning idea is fine - until a wasp flies up your shorts .
Wouldn’t be allowed now - H&S .
Know what you mean about family in Italy. Equally applies to women. I was stopped because I hadn’t had time to put the number plate on the trailer in Dover, and then kept forgetting. They got very excited jumping up and down and insisting I put it on straight away. While I was walking to the back of the trailer my wife leaned over the seat with a low cut top on and and pleaded with the copper for directions to the nearest resto, as she was sooooo hungry.
He immediately called me back, wouldn’t allow me to complete the operation, because la signorina is hungry. Go, go, go, feed her!!! I went.
If I remember rightly David there was wire mesh cover inside the flap to stop insects being blown up the trouser leg and on the subject of families, this is a picture of my wife when we were loading at Petternella Wines in Legnago near Verona. Don’t tell her I told you but I think she’s sitting there because the guys that worked at the cantina kept giving her wine tastings and what with the heat and all, she was starting to feel a bit light headed!
Anyone remember when we had a severe sugar shortage in England 'cos that’s when this was? Earlier she had been out to the local grocers and bought about a dozen bags but she couldn’t understand why the shop keeper went into one when she tendered a 10,000 lire note. For anyone who never went to Italy in those days, there was always an acute shortage of small denomination coins and notes. The poor shopkeeper had to go around a couple of other shops to get enough change!
As for the Jesus Christo Mal, I did look that up on an internet translator before I posted but all it would come up with was Jesus Christ. What they actually called me sounded phonetically like Jesu Christo
Jesu, thatd be it, I remember getting very drunk in a bar in portugal in the 80’s a lot of insensible drunk type things were going on, and one of the maddest things was a about an hour long chant of Jesu Crhisto!
I remember the coin shortage well Dave. At the autostrada tolls you could pay in anything but you also got all sorts of goods in change from sweets to ■■■■.
It’s called ‘barter’ a very old and respectable system. I do something like that now, by looking after a couple of friends’ houses while they are away I don’t take money but am allowed to help myself to produce in the garden, park my caravan and trailer in the barn, get the odd gifts from England and elsewhere in France, oh, and I get to keep all the lovely grass cuttings for my composter which, because of the seeds that have been thrown away in it, has produced free tomatoes and melons when put in pots for our flowers
What I don’t remember with pleasure is banging all those gettonis (tokens) in the payphones for phone calls back home.
Sounds a bit like ‘The Good Life’ David, I wouldn’t mind earning my living llike that. Better than driving although probably not quite so remunative. I could never make out which way those bl00dy slots were supposed to go on the Gettoni, sweets were nice in the change although I sometimes wondered how many sweaty palms they’d been through before I ate 'em!
Just noticed the steel capped thongs (whoops sorry, that’s Aussie talk - flip-flops) your wife is wearing.
No problems with H&S in those days were there?
'Till you got your toes chopped off of course.
David, Im glad you noticed M8, there wernt a problemn with H&S! Im amazed we all managed to survive till now, what mortal peril we were in, and didnt even knoiw it,
thanks god for the nannying ■■■■■■■ at the H&S stalag UK, gawd bless’em and save them from falling in the sea or summat equally as dangerous!
She had taken her toetectors off, it was lunch time. And don’t forget her husband was Jesus Christo, gotta wear her jesus sandals or she’d be letting the family down. I’d been up at the Blanc the day before feeding 10,000 TIR drivers with a tin of sardines and a loaf of bread
Anyway David, what are you doing looking at her feet, haven’t got some kind of safety shoe fetish have you?
I was just thinking she looks a ‘bit of alright’, Dave… never noticed her steel toe capped flip flops lol
No wonder they kept passing her wine … the Italians love their women ( just remembered I am half Sicilian lolol )
Come on David, we are all waiting, we’re all friends here you know!
And I’m sure the misses will appreciate the kind remarks Bear, you silver tongued devil you, but that WAS in the mid 70’s, she’s a Great Grandmother now!
And who’s Rick Wakeman? answers on a postcard please to…JC.
very interesting post Dave, and great pics. The good simple ideas like those flaps would never be now, everythings got ot be complicated!
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