24th April 2001 - Roy Underdown Pavilion

On 24th April the society held its second Annual General Meeting. A summary of the events of the past 12 months was given and a programme for the coming year outlined. After the re-election of the Committee and close of business, Dave Wilde talked about his experience of working in Hamble.

It is 1954 and you have started work as an apprentice in the local garage, a shed across the road from the Olde Whyte Harte. Cars are quite basic, with no radios or power steering, but so is your working equipment. No powered ramp!. If the exhaust needs fixing, you lie on a 'skate board' and pull yourself under the car. The work is varied because you are dealing ont only with cars, but lawn-mowers, boat engines, outboard motors TV aerials and anything else a villager needs mending. You learn that boats can be unstable and, if you remove the starting battery and place it on the side deck, it could end up at the bottom of the river. Then when the job is done, you clean your hands with paraffin. The way Dave told it, in those days life in Hamble was fun!

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