Remember When............

[Top-of-the-hill]

  It tends to be teenagers here, as they are walking from the school buses. On the whole adults don't walk, they drive! Narrow village street, no lights, no pavement, black school uniforms, often on the wrong side of the road.
   I was taught by my grandfather, b 1884, to walk facing the on-coming traffic, and I am almost incapable of walking on the wrong side.

[Rena]

teenagers dressed all in black don't realise how invisible they are

Mum told me about the time when she and dad were driving home in the dark. One chap on a bike was narrowly avoided only because he had polished his shoes.

Whatever makes cyclists think that lights don't matter?

When I was a teenager the engineering company that my family worked for moved into the country and we moved house to be near the factory.

I had a pal at the factory and she and I would cycle to the coast to a way out place named Tunstall, where we  walked through the field where skylarks would fly up into the air to distract us from their nests,. We'd have a swim and cycle back home again.  One particular day the sky darkened and the heavens opened when we were halfway home.   In those days our headlamp and backlight were powered by a dynamo pressed against the rim of the back wheel.  For some reason my dynamo refused to light either of my lights so we rode two abreast with my pal cycling on the outside to protect me from any other traffic on the road.

As luck would have it the village bobby was out and about being vigilant on the outskirts of the village.  He made sure that I got off my bike and walk the rest of the way home.  I did as I was told but as there were no pavements I couldn't see his reasoning because my pal would still want to protect me but her lights wouldn't work if she cycled along at walking pace.

I think he probably had a hat on with the word "Jobsworth" printed on the front 

[Rena]

  It tends to be teenagers here, as they are walking from the school buses. On the whole adults don't walk, they drive! Narrow village street, no lights, no pavement, black school uniforms, often on the wrong side of the road.
  I was taught by my grandfather, b 1884, to walk facing the on-coming traffic, and I am almost incapable of walking on the wrong side.

Ditto TotH and I did the same with my children and grandchildren