Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO YOU remember those old carrier bikes?

You know, the ones with the big fixed metal basket on the front, used by delivery boys in times gone by.

Well, when I was a boy my father owned a greengrocery shop and it was one of my jobs to deliver orders to customers on one of those monstrosities.

I say monstrosities because they were the devil's own job to master. The weight of the basket on the front made them difficult to steer at the best of times, and if you had a heavy load in the basket it was almost impossible. The damned thing seemed to have a mind of its own.

In the middle of winter my hands would be frozen as well, and added to this, in the early days my feet only just reached the pedals. So it seemed to me that I spent as much time pushing the bike as riding it.

You might have gathered from all this that when I see someone pedalling away merrily on a carrier bike in some period television drama or other it hardly brings a smile to my face. More like a grimace!

Still, even a carrier bike was better than a hand trolley that I sometimes had to use to deliver a 1 cwt sack of potatoes.

Eventually the forays on bike and trolley grew fewer as I was allowed to accompany my father and make deliveries by van. And finally at the age of 17 I passed my test and could drive the van myself.

It seemed that home deliveries were a thing of the past, but now, of course, they are making quite a comeback. You sit down at your computer, go "virtual shopping" and your order is brought to your doorstep just like the old days.

Malcolm Davies is a former editor of the Penarth Times. Mal's Memories now appear on the Penarth Times web site www.thisis penarth.co.uk and you can also find the early columns on Mal's site at www.communigate.co.uk/wales/mdav24/index.ph tml