FRIGHTENING, isn't it - only a month to Christmas and I haven't yet got out my card list. Originally drafted so that it would function for about five years, it has to be carefully checked each year, adding on the new entries, and the sad bit, deleting those who are no longer with us. I've no doubt we shall struggle through in the end, but this season always seems to have a habit of dropping in on us a bit quickly. Should be used to it by now!

You might recall I mentioned the painting of the double lines on Old Malton Road alongside the top Orchard Fields, and the fact that despite traffic cones being put out, someone had parked a car at the roadside when the painting took place. This resulted in there being a small car-long space without double lines, which I jokingly wondered if someone would have the audacity to park their vehicle in. You've guessed it. They did! Two days running last week, and different vehicles. Whether they got away with it or not, I don't know, but I suspect they were sailing fairly close to the wind. Another request for this situation to be put right has, I am told, been put in hand.

I had a wartime copy of the Cambridge Daily News for November 25, 1942, sent to me (the date being a coincidence I hadn't previously realised) and, reminded of cycling without lights, I've been reading about "several members of the WAAF being before Newmarket bench for offences concerning bicycle lights". There was also a case of an LAC giving a young lady a lift on his bike, for which they were both fined ten shillings. Several were fined for riding without front lamps, and the judge complained about the flippant remarks made to special constables after one girl had said she'd had a cycle, and five lamps stolen and was "fed up". Several were fined for being without rear lights, and the bench felt that the military ought to make lamps and batteries available, otherwise they would have to consider increasing the fines imposed. I've no doubt that the girls would feel much aggrieved considering they were serving their country, away from home and loved ones, and not only did they have Hitler to contend with, but the 'Specials' as well - ignoring the fact, of course, that they were breaking the law.

An amusing interlude took place, owing to the fact that the majority of fines were 7s 6d, and most defendants tendered ten-shilling notes. The magistrates' clerk ran out of change. The problem was finally solved by the chairman of the court producing some silver.

I wonder what happened to the couple, LAC Herbert Calcutt and Kathleen Mary Woodbridge, to whom he was giving a lift on his cross-bar? It's a long time ago now. Ships that pass in the night.

What changes we have seen in passenger transport on the buses, haven't we? Those beautiful Coastliner 'deckers' are a delight to see, and hear. It wasn't always so. Up to and including wartime, they were mostly under-powered, and I recall the times when returning from Salisbury after an evening there and making back to Bulford Camp, the old bus would grind to a halt, and the driver would say: "Some of you will have to get out and give a push to get up this hill." Whereupon, both American and British soldiers would, good-naturedly, dismount and put their shoulders to the wheel as it were. Needless to say, the old coach would be grossly overloaded to start with, and the US lads would probably have wished they'd gone on their own 'passion wagons' in the first place, for their Studebakers and GMCs would laugh at the hills. Nevertheless - happy days!

And still talking of 'deckers', I can remember quite vividly the night I got called out to an 'accident' at Crambeck Bridge, and looking in my photo album I see another date coincidence, for the date says November 27, 1959. This night was a cold, foggy one and the bus had collided with a Bentley all-steel saloon. It toppled over, crashing through the north-west wall of the bridge, where it came to rest with the driver's cab overhanging the stream below. The driver's door was open when I arrived and I was told that the driver had fallen out in to the muddy water below. I recovered the Bentley, whose repairs were considerable, the engine itself having to be sent back to Rolls-Royce for crack-detection, etc. It was returned to us in as-new condition, which was excellent for the owner, but was quite the most expensive insurance job we'd had for a while. Crambeck bridge still bears the scars of this crash, and the re-built wall is still easily seen as different from the original. As long as human beings are driving vehicles, then crashes will occur, for human reasons I expect, and dualling, or 'trebling' won't stop that.

Quote: "No one can terrorise a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices." Ed Murrow, US journalist, 1908-1965.

Updated: 11:27 Wednesday, November 26, 2003