1976 The Crash of Mitchell

Mid December: 'Tis said he'd had his license but five days. He was returning home to Enfield, from Milford in my pale blue Datsun 510. The roads were icy that night. Was our hero proceeding with due caution? We shall never know.

He lost control and the fiendish Japanese motor car proceeded rapidly, backwards, into a ditch. Only his pride was hurt. His seat broke bacwards and the damage to the rear of the car rendered it essentially undriveable, being a hatchback the back door wouldn't close and much the back-end was a funny shape.

Needless to say we weren't well pleased, although, hopefully, we were glad that he was unharmed.

As it was our only transport, a replacement had to be found. I bought an aged Ford Mustang from Eric Carpenter at work. What a disaster that proved to be! It was replaced by a new Mini (of which more shortly).

In time, the Datsun was repaired ($510) and it soldiered on for another while.