The lady above is Anne Hall, "one of England’s greatest rally drivers", and also the lady who taught me to drive in the early 90s (when she herself was in her 70s). I suspect my dad knew her and her husband through his time as a car auctioneer. As well as racing, she ran her own driving school, and taught many people in Huddersfield how to drive... carefully, not like a rally champion!
She was a tough but fair instructor and I loved my lessons. She got quite upset when I didn't pass first time - not at me, but at the examiner, who "didn't know what he was talking about".
But I knew why I failed first time. Halfway through the test, I pulled up at a big set of traffic lights in the centre of Huddersfield and glanced in my rear view mirror. A car pulled up behind me and I recognised it immediately... it was my mum. I could see her peering through the windscreen, trying to see if that was me in the car ahead. After that, my concentration was shot.
I'm not saying I blame my mum for failing first time... but I certainly don't blame the late Mrs. Hall.
Jarvis Cocker would have been an excellent driving instructor, had he not followed the pop star route. Here he is in collaboration with fellow-Sheffield noise-makers, The All-Seeing I, who I remember seeing live in the late 90s, around the time their album Pickled Eggs & Sherbert was released... although Jarvis was absent that night.
That would have really thrown you having your mum pull up behind you during the test - Love the picture of her as you would never suspect she was a rally driver in her nice summer dress, but then again, the casual crossing of the legs shows she had 'something about her'.
ReplyDeleteThat is one scary looking jar of picked eggs but a great song choice.
Oh I'd love to have had Jarvis Cocker as my driving instructor...
ReplyDeleteTht's a great photo of yours, it's like a still from a classic early '60s film, Dirk Bogarde must be just around the corner.