Mervyn was the proud owner of a pale blue and white Lambretta scooter which he rode to and from his apprenticeship in Fleetwood, past my mother’s house. It was also our nightly transport to the various youth clubs on the area and the illicit trips to the local pubs. I was then about 14/15.

It was the time of Mods and we used to listen to Northern Soul, got to the local discos, namely the Queens on Cleveleys promenade and we dressed the part. Ben Sherman shirts, two-tome or Prince of Wales check trousers, Dr Maartens or brogue shoes and of course the Crombie and string backed driving gloves!! What a sight we must have been.

One day Mervyn broke down on his was home, so he parked to scooter in the back garden of my mother’s, probably eat my tea and then we walked back to his house. Interestingly, my mother made a point of telling me there would be ‘hell to pay’ if I tried to ride the scooter while it was there. First, it wasn’t running and second I didn’t know how to.

As luck would have it, the next day whilst playing football with a burst ball on the tar play ground at Baines, I fell on the ball and Ian Wilkinson fell on top of me. I managed to snap my left side front tooth on the gravel, grazed my chin and skinned both my elbows and knees – tearing my shirt and trousers in the process and leaving liberal amounts of snot, blood and kin on my clothes.

The school kindly arranged for me to get an emergency appointment with the dentist and then contacted my mother to let her know I would be late because I had been in an accident. So, you can imagine, her first thought was that I had crashed Mervyn’s scooter and she stuck to that for the next 25 years or more. Now, bear in mind I had not been at home to ride it, it was broken down etc.

I came home from the dentist to stony silence and not an ounce of sympathy. The scooter went the next day but it came up frequently – can’t be trusted etc.

This went on until I had been living in Cape Town for many years and on a visit, the subject came up and I explained in detail as well as telling her I no longer cared what she thought, these are facts and that seemed to put a lid on it.