Memory Mixtape #11: Scooter

Pictured above: my old scooter, which was my primary method of transportation before I got a bike. I went everywhere on that thing... often by myself, and looking at that photo above, I reckon I wasn't much older than Sam is now. Ah, the 70s...

The photo is taken at Reighton Gap holiday village, near Filey, where a couple of times a year my parents rented a small bungalow with pebbledash walls (to the right) for a week. The owner was a lady called Mrs. Kershaw, and I think she worked with my dad. I remember going along with him to pay her for the holiday and watching him count out bank notes from a bundle in his pocket.

There weren't many cottages at Reighton Gap, most of it was a huge caravan park, with a pub, a cafe, a supermarket, a fish and chip shop, a shop that sold toys and had a spinner rack of old comics (be still, my beating heart), and the arcade where I'd go on an evening, with my mum, to play video games.

In the daytime though, I'd often head off to explore Reighton Gap on my scooter. On my own. Bouncing over the speed bumps and whizzing down the slopes until I got bored and returned to the cottage.

That's my mum in the photo on the right. I don't remember her ever being that young, but I guess she'd be about as old as I am now, in that photo. Maybe a year or two younger. As I've mentioned before, my dad worked in the motor trade as an auctioneer, and normally drove a decent Ford Granada or Sierra... but the car above looks a bit of a heap, so I'm wondering if this is from his redundancy years, when money was tight and he was trying to set up his own auction business. That year, I really wanted a Spider-Man comic from the neighbouring village of Hunmanby, but my dad had returned home to do an auction, taking the car with him that day. We only had enough money for a one way bus ticket, so mum suggested we walk there and take the bus back. It was a much longer walk than we'd bargained for, and we still laugh about it today. It nearly killed us both!  

I wonder what happened to that old scooter? I do know what happened to my first bike. My brother drove over it in a tipper truck. I can remember my sister carrying it to the back door... it looked fine the way she was holding it, then she turned it side on and it was completely flat. But I didn't love it as much as I loved that scooter. That scooter was my first taste of freedom...

Here's Ronnie Montrose and Sammy Hagar to wake up your Friday...