Dad was not a petrol head.

The first car I remember was an Austin A70.  Black. The Austin had trafficators*, semaphore like devices,  that flapped out from the door posts, with dull yellow lightbulbs in them.   I thought that if both indicators presented at one time then the car was bound to split in half, each half going in the direction indicated.

I find, to no surprise, the Austin took over 21 seconds to get to 60mph (about 100km/h).  Dad favoured underpowered, heavy cars.  Continuing this theme he replaced the Austin with a Humber Hawk, the down-market version of the Super Snipe, with 4 cylinders as opposed to 6 in the latter.   This took a full half minute to reach 60 from a standing start.  It had rippled chrome on the front of the rear wheel arch, and it was made in Britain!  Somehow I was to believe that all things British were good, solid and strong.  American cars (and all manufacturing) was flashy, just a bit too “out there”.

The wool price was still ok, so Dad ordered a new Humber!  Super Snipe? we all asked. No, said Dad, the Hawk will do us fine.  The second Humber Hawk was much improved with an aluminum head and overhead valves!  It could reach 60 in just 25 seconds!  The smell of burning rubber is not part of my validation therapy. 

These cars all had bench seats in the front and for most of my childhood a baby seat of metal frame and canvas “upholstery” hung in the middle.  Mum and Dad were chain smokers, so the windows were open most of the time.  Mum never drove without gloves, and usually had a rug over her knees.

The best car of my childhood was a Chrysler Royal.  1955 model. It had wonderful tail fins and lots of chrome.  It didn’t belong to us.  Other friends had a Chevrolet, with a leather rope stretched across the back of the front seat for those of us standing in the back to hold onto.

Humbers became the car of choice for “Official Government Duties”, transporting government ministers and the like.  We were mixing with the right people!  Maybe our next car would be a Super Snipe!  But no, the wool price was down, the family size up (five children at that stage) so it was with some regret and shame that we moved downmarket and into a new Holden Station Wagon.  Grey.  Needless to say the Holden did not have a heater, and no turn signal indicators – Blinker lights were too new in 1957. They may have been optional extras.  The Humber had electric windscreen wipers, but our first Holden still had vacuum operated wipers, which always ceased working when the engine was working hard.

Even when we had a choice of motor sizes with the EH in 1963, our third holden was chosen with the small (149, rather than the mighty 179) motor.

As I said, Dad was not a petrol head

*These indicators were invented by a Canadian woman, with the wonderful name of Florence Lawrence, around 1914.  She failed to adequately patent them.