Cars aren't everything,but nearly.....

I have to be honest. I have a love - hate relationship with cars.Always had a fascination with them but the more you have to do with them,the more you discover that a car has a a persona all of its own.Never more so than French cars and especially Citroen models,although I dare say owners of Italian cars would and no doubt will take issue with that assertion.That's okay,I've owned Italian vehicles as well and I won't argue that they definitely have a flair all their own;it's just that I've had the pleasure(?) of owning more French than Italian cars.
I was probably about nine when I saw a CitroenID for the first time and that was when the rot set in.I always knew I'd have one (as it turned out I bought a DS21 many moons later) but the realisation of that desire got submerged in the general fascination with cars.
I can still remember the family holiday on Borth beach when Dad let me drive the Hillman Silver Sands.I had to sit on his knee and he worked the clutch,etc but I steered and changed gear (man,I hope the statute of limitations or whatever has run out for these offenses).And what a sense of power that gave me.I was hooked!.Later,we changed the Hillman for a Humber Hawk.This,if you've never seen one was built along the lines of the old American cars,all wide,flaring arches and massively long.Leather upholstery and real wood interiors,a sort of stately home on wheels.The kind of car that made you drive with your little finger sticking out.Dad used to let me park it in the garage,which at my age,was akin to docking the shuttle into the space station;yes the clearance was that tight.But hey,a car nut,whatever the age,has got to do what a car nut has to do.
Y'know ,I just remembered my first down side with cars.We,at some time, had a Hillman Coupe ( a rag top to you and me) which exhibited an unfortunate trait when it rained.That's right,it let in and in a quite spectacular way.Funnily enough though,that wasn't the downside I was thinking about.Because I,humiliatingly, suffered from car sickness I got to travel in the front.And the Coupe's doors hinged at the rear..We were doing about thirty-five when I realised my door wasn't shut properly and without thinking opened it,which had the same effect as putting up a sail into a stiff breeze and I found myself being dragged out of the car. Mum grabbed my shoulders and together we wrestled the door shut again.Needless to say this was long before anyone had even heard of seatbelts.Still,a lesson learned the hard way is one you remember.I never opened those doors on the move again.