Twenty years

[Blaketon]

It’s 20 years, today, since I became the owner of a Morris Minor (The first owner, Mrs Fern - I wonder if she is still with us, owned it for a few days under twenty years, so I have just become the longest owner). I recall the day well. My late father and I went to Manchester, to view the car and having bought it, my father drove it back. The vendor, a Mr Burrows (Who I doubt is still with us) told us that he couldn’t go anywhere in the Traveller, without someone talking to him about the car. I assumed this was sales pitch but it really didn’t interest me.

We stopped, for petrol, on the M6 and an Australian tourist (Who had family here) began filming the Morris (I was expecting Jeremy Beadle to appear). He asked how long I had owned the car, which was probably about half and hour and how much it was worth. To that I replied, hopefully what I had given for it and his unforgettable reply was “S**t, that’s twenty thousand bucks”. When we reached the M5 / 50 junction, some prawn, in a modern, couldn’t wait to get past the Morris. My father was a very good driver, with some competition experience and promptly showed the clown the quick way through the roundabout, plus clean pair of heels!!

A short while later, I took my mother shopping in Cardiff. I went to get the car from the car park and we had arranged I would collect my mother at the back of Marks and Spencers. When I arrived, two separate people, one young and one older man, spoke to me about the car, in as many minutes!! I then realised that what I had been told was not just sales pitch. Since the car is known to us as Blaketon, this phenomenon has become known as being Blaketoned. Mr Burrows also owned a classic Jaguar and said that few took any notice of that and this is something I can relate to with the MGs, though that has changed within the last five or ten years. I have always driven cars like the ones I have and to me it is “Normal” but I suppose it’s like someone driving a vintage (1919 – 30) cars when I was young (I used to enjoy a trip to a VSCC event and still would, if I had more time).

I bought the Morris as a runabout (Though I cycle more than I drive, so even the runabout doesn’t get a lot of use) but I recall going to a local classic car club meeting and on the way back, I was doing 55 or 60mph, through some sweeping bends (Nothing manic), when it dawned on me “This car handles rather well, I’m enjoying this.” Years later, not long before he died, my father asked me car was my favourite and I honestly didn’t know. Then, last year, when I drove the Morris, for the first time in years (It has been laid up whilst I await time to attend a few things I wish to do, not least rectify the pig’s ear Wares made of a 5 speed conversion), I realised that it is whatever I am driving when you ask me. They are all pretty special to me.

I have more cars than I ever intended. I had hoped to be able to hold on to my father’s last car but didn’t expect this would become two, which added to my two makes four and potentially five, with my mother’s MGB GT. As an all round “Car”, my mother’s, whilst not being best at anything (Save perhaps ride comfort and engine access to match the Morris), is a good mix of performance and practicality. She says she doesn’t intend to keep the car but if she changes her mind, space would be very tight in my garage (When I no longer have access to two garages) and I would have to use the four poster ramp for storage (Not something I would really wish to do). I don’t want to sell the Morris (Which as a runabout is clearly the best) but if my mother asks me to look after the BGT (As my father did with his last car), I may ultimately have to do so (But it will feel like a bereavement).

I joke that I want to drive the Morris when it is 100 years old (And I am older than it) and (Unless I can find the secret of immortality; something slightly less appealing since my father’s passing) taken to my own funeral in it. There are two very good reasons for this choice. Firstly the Morris is my oldest car, so the odds against this are shorter and secondly, it’s the only one that would take a coffin!!!

The other cars are the MG Midget, that I will have owned forty years, come next June, my late father’s MGB GT V8 (He said that was his all time favourite) and my father’s MG Midget, bought (I think) as a final project, that I finished off for my father (Which meant the Morris had to wait a little longer for it’s turn). It was fortunate that I took the job on when I did, or else he’d not have seen it finished (We didn’t know time was short at the time) and I’d have little appetite for the job now. He had said he would sell it when finished but when he saw the results, had a change of heart, so I now have an extra car (But thankfully a small car…..and an economical one; more so than my modified Midget). I only wish he could have had longer to enjoy the car finished but I eventually came to appreciate that he enjoyed the project more than the results.

[KeithL]

A lovely story. Thank you for telling it.

[Maria1959morris]

Great story.enjoyed read . thanks

[Blaketon]

My mother had a hair appointment last week, so I took the opportunity to stock up on some sand and cement (May not get much chance to use it but just in case.....and if we get a Spring next year, it'll be there for me). Naturally we used Blaketon and yes, we got Blaketoned. This time it was in the builders' merchants - whilst I was getting the stuff, someone asked my mother whether it was OK to take a photo of the car. She had a job not to laugh; the thing is, for us, driving cars like that is normal and we sometimes can't get used to the idea that it is a bit like someone driving a vintage car during the 1970s (The newest car we ever had was my mother's 1989 Vauxhall Nova, that she owned from 1989 - 2001; now retired, she has a 1978 MGB GT).

The next day (Wednesday; my day off), the weather was excellent (Not that you would have expected it, with the barometer showing stormy....I think we must have been at the centre of the low, with all the weather outside us). I had hoped, that if the weather was fine, I would give the black Midget a run but I think it was a tad cold for my mother in an open car. That car is in my garage and "Blaketon" is in my mother's (Along with the red Midget), so I cycled there and we went to https://m.facebook.com/cookie/consent_p ... en_GB&_rdr (A favorite of my mother's) in the Traveller. True to form, we were Blaketoned, twice this time, first in the Tearoom and then when we stopped to do some shopping on the way back.

[geoberni]

https://m.facebook.com/cookie/consent_p ... en_GB&_rdr

You need to review your link, if I use it, it just opens my fb profile search facility....

[olonas]

24 years here. Many, less than 24, years ago, I was filling up my Saloon in Halewood, Liverpool, at a Shell station.
A man drove up in a quite "flash" sports car. I didn't think twice but he came over and started chatting about my car. It took a few seconds to recognise him, Gary Mavers, a Liverpool actor who used to be in the t.v. series "Peak Practice". He was visiting family. A really nice and down to earth man.
His character drove an old "C" suffix registration Volvo Amazon.