Four days to London....

I picked up a really interesting old bloke one day. He was in his late 90s & was sharp as a knife with his mind, but he could no longer walk or get about without a helper.
I`d picked him up from the old folks home he lived in. He had an appointment at Burnley General Hospital.

He said he didn`t get out much these days & was enjoying the run over to Burnley.
Along the way he told me about how he`d left school at 14 & went straight down the local coal mine. He didn`t like it much & a few years later was involved in a mine accident that had trapped both his legs, breaking them.

He went on to tell me the leg breaks had ended his mining career, but had set him in a new direction....he became an apprentice traction engine driver..... the sort you used to see on fair grounds & on Fred Dibnah-type tv programs. He said he loved the outdoor life & told me in the days before motorways & 'proper' lorries, it`d take four days to get to London & then another four day back.

.....& i whinged when it took me four hours to drive down there a few weeks ago!