Hold Tight! - Romsey
 
Chapter 6
 
Page 40
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Hold Tight!
Chapter 6
Southampton
35 Fans
36 Smash hits
37 New money
38 Eastleigh
39 Tight squeeze
40 Romsey
41 Hythe
42 Holy city
43 Docks tours
44 Fawley & Calshot
45 Kids and animals
46 Hot stuff
47 Police, stop
48 Flic storys
49 Specials
50 Just sack me!
51 Machine wars
52 Not funny
53 Borrowing
54 Demon drink
55 One for the road
56 Disputes
Chapters
1 Beginnings
2 Learning
3 Getting Away
4 Winchester
5 Freedom
6 Southampton
7 City Transport
 
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As a 'spare' or stand-by conductor one morning, I was taken in the inspectors van to Romsey. The inspector drove off leaving me with the bus and half a dozen or so passengers.
I checked the bus over, set the destination indicator, climbed into the cab and started up. We were already late and as I wondered where the driver had got to a passenger came round to the cab and asked what time I was going to leave. I replied "as soon as the driver gets here" only to be told that he was not going to. It turned out that his conductor had been in the habit of driving the bus from the bus station until it reached the stop near the driver's home.
Now I had broken a few rules by then. But this was asking too much, I didn't even have a car licence. I stayed put and eventually the driver arrived and took over. To say I was not popular hardly covers it.
One evening, on a journey from Romsey to Southampton, a grey police Hillman Husky tried to overtake us as we drove along the 'Mile Wall' which runs down one side of Broadlands Estate. For some reason my driver decided to race the van but it eventually got past and made us stop. One policeman went to talk to the driver and the other headed my way. I was expecting trouble but it turned out they were looking for someone who had escaped from a remand centre.
Quite what they would have made of me and another driver on our hands and knees in the middle of Romsey Square, in the snow at eleven o'clock at night I'm not sure. We were looking for and found a contact lens lost in a snowball fight.
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