Motor Cars & Motor Bikes
A motor car something few private individuals owned back in the 1950s and earlier. I recall several occasions before I started work when a neighbour would reverse his Standard 10? car out from the garage to wash and polish it on a Saturday morning. He would then drive it to the local service station to top up the fuel and check tyres, etc. If I was very lucky he would take me with him on such trips which was something to look forward to, albeit a matter of only a few blocks away. This neighbour's ritual was to return home, collect his wife, and his mother-in-law, then away they would go for a drive and picnic.
In those days we thought nothing of walking to school and if we were given tram fare on a Saturday morning to go to Chums Club (see under "What we did") we would more often than not walk from Kaikorai to the city to save the fare for sweets instead.
My father never owned a car but apparently did possess a motorcycle and sidecar at some time prior to my memories - there is a photograph somewhere I seem to recall.
In 1951, when I first started work, I was an apprentice automotive electrician at Wooff & Salvesen (Dn) Ltd. One of the first things I learned there, apart from making the tea, was to drive their old 1928 Chev truck so I would be able to take the rubbish to the tip.
My early years of road transport were confined to a variety of motorcycles. The first was a 1938 James two-stroke that I bought from a chap at McLeod soap works in Cumberland Street, now an extension of the Cadbury's empire. That bike smelled of carbolic for the entire time I had it - well it seemed like it - and there was no such thing as telescopic suspension in those days either. I seem to recall it never did have a cover on the flywheel from the time I bought it to the time I sold it. Of course the other thing was it had a hand-change gear shift, no battery and the warning device was one of those where you squeezed the bulb on the end of a horn mounted on the handle bars - all a lot of fun in those days.
Finally the move into cars. In the mid 50s, it was common for us to buy a vehicle which was in the order of 20 years old or more, typically about a 1928-30 model to start with. A far cry from what teenagers expect these days!
See more on Transport Modes - Morris Minor & others.
See also The Ammunition Track - the motorcycle track at lower Kaikorai Valley.
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