Chapter 7

Spring 1961.

The four boys now decided they wanted to spread their wings wider than just spending all their time around Shelfield or the nearby villages. The only problem that they had was a lack of transport. Both Danny and Sean had cycles, but Tom and Flash did not. At first, they tried to solve this by one riding the cycle while the other sat on the cross bar but this they found was neither comfortable nor practical.

The solution to their problem came one day as they visited a gypsy friend of theirs by the name of ‘Tip Toe Francis’. He got this nick name on account of him always walking on his tip toes because there was something wrong with the tendons in the back of his leg.

Tip Toes, shed and yard, was always a place of interest to the boys as it invariably contained such things as air guns, old mopeds and always lots of M.O.D. surplus stuff. As they searched for things of interest to them, Tom found some old parachute silks. He held on to one of these while jumping off a high ladder landing in a pile of old sheep skins. The dust from this venture almost choked them all. They had almost given up on finding something of interest when Sean called out from the back of the shed, “Look at these boys.”

The remaining three boys rushed to see what had caught Sean’s attention. Sean at this point was pulling something from under a large canvas sheet, his face was by now filthy dirty but carried a wide grin as he finally held up his prize by its front wheel, “Will you look at this beauty?”

Flash looked less that convinced. “It’s a bloody old Tandem, why are you so excited?”

Sean shook his head and after carefully wiping off years of dust and grim from its frame, he looked at his three friends amazed that the penny had not dropped before he said, “I know your knowledge of maths is poor but even you three should be able understand this. Four of us on two tandems, means you, thick twats that we will then all of us have transport.’

This now caused a mixed reception from the three as Flash shook his head while Danny and Tom could now see the advantages of what Sean was suggesting. After pulling both tandems out from under the canvas sheet they started to have a good look at what kind of state they were in, and what, if anything, was needed to make them roadworthy. Danny suggested painting them bright red, then fitting Ape hanger bars. Even Flash now began to see this would be a good idea.

The only remaining fly in the ointment was how much Tip Toe would want in cash for the two tandems. Danny was selected to be the one to bargain with him. The three of them approached Tip Toe’s hut where they found him cooking a pan full of sausages on an old cast iron stove. On seeing them he looked up from his frying pan asking if they were hungry, and they answered, “No, thank you.”

He then said, “Please yourselves,” and proceeded to eat them all one at a time, before asking,

“Did you find anything that took your fancy then, lads?”

Not wanting to appear too keen, Danny shook his head and cautiously answered, “No, there was nothing much that took our fancy.”

Still enjoying his sausages, Tip Toe paused, wiped his lips with a not too clean piece of rag before asking, “I am sorry about that, there is usually something that interests you.”

Realising now was the time to mention the pair of Tandems, Danny began his opening gambit with, “Well, I say nothing really interested us, but we would be willing to take that pair of old Tandems off your hands, if you did not want too much for them, that is.”

Tip Toe having by now finished off the last of his sausages grinned as he looked up at the four expectant faces looking at him, “By referring to those old Tandems, I take it that you mean those two former racing Tandems that I had in storage under that canvas sheet.”

The lad’s faces dropped at his reply, but Danny was determined not to fall at the first fence, as he now tried a different tack. “I did not realise they were such collectable pieces, that being the case we would not possibly be able to afford to buy them, so we are sorry to have wasted your time.”

Tip toe held up his hand, “Hold on to your horses boys, I did not say that you could not afford them, I merely pointed out that they were not just pieces of junk.”

Danny pursued the matter by asking Tip Toe, “So how much are we talking about, give us a ballpark figure.’

Tip Toe scratched his head and pointing across his yard he asked, “Do you see that trailer load of horse manure over there?”

The boys looked to where he had pointed and saw a huge trailer full of fresh steaming horse manure. They looked less than enthusiastic as Danny being their spokesman ventured the question, “What has that got to do with us buying your Tandems?”

Tip Toe now smiled before answering, “If you boys would do me a great favour by unloading that pile of horse shit, into 1 cwt sacks, that I will, I might add, supply, then after placing them neatly against the far wall, you can then have both of the Tandems for just one crisp £5.00 note.”

They looked at each other not knowing at first what to say, then after some moaning and further discussion they agreed.

Five hours later, smelling less than sweet, they handed over £٥.٠٠ and became the proud joint owners of two somewhat tatty Tandems.

Later that week with Mazza’s permission they stripped them down in his workshop after which Danny performed his magic by spraying the frames black, then carefully hand painting red flames along the cross bars. Fitted with new tyres and Ape hanger bars they now looked unrecognizable from the two wrecks they had purchased. The four of them felt the world was their oyster as they explored places farther afield such as the youth clubs on Dudley Fields council estate, for one.

In June they decided to try even farther places, one of these being to visit Lichfield when the traditional fair called the ‘Bower’ was held. This was a huge affair with stalls set out all over the town while on the park there was a fair ground with all its rides. They set out early in the morning as Lichfield was the longest distance that they had so far attempted on the flame covered tandems. The journey went without mishap and took them just over one hour after which they arrived hot and sweating at their destination. After parking up their transport the four of them wandered around the busy streets taking in all the activity on display, this did not prevent them from looking out for any good-looking local girls.

Sat outside the ‘Robin Hood’ pub drinking a weak shandy each, they now tried to act as if drinking at pubs was something they did all the time. As a group of girls now approached on drawing level with Sean, he called out, ‘Would you like to join us for a drink, Girls?’

Flash with just two shillings in his pocket now swallowed hard hoping they would not take Sean up on his offer.

One of the girls answered, “No thank you, anyhow how old are you four?’

Now pointing directly at Danny, she added, “He only looks about thirteen, bless him.”

Danny blushed at this, but as she smiled at him, he returned it by throwing her a kiss.

The girl responded by coming across to give him a peck on the cheek saying, “You are a little sweetie.”

The other lads looked on at this until Tom called after the girls who by this time had walked on, “Come on girls, share it out, why should he get all the attention.”

But the reply that came back was not what Tom expected. “Because he is not a gobby git,that is why.”

After all their money was exhausted the boys rode home, the highlight of this was after struggling to pedal up ‘Shire Oak ‘hill, they had a downhill ride almost all the way home.

Danny now recalled one final adventure with the Tandems, that they had before that summer was over. This occurred one evening, after they had ridden to visit a youth club in an area known as ‘Coal Pool’. Here as they sat outside on their tandems chatting to some local girls, suddenly they heard some Moped engines. This put them on their guard as there was in this area a gang of youths who rode around on N.S.U. mopeds or the like causing havoc wherever they went. Sure, enough their fears were realised as about four Mopeds came down the hill towards them, Sean advised his friends that they should ignore them, hoping that they would just ride on by. This however was not to be the case as the four of them now pulled up next to where they sat, after putting the Mopeds on to their stands the four boys who looked to be older than Sean and his friends came up close before asking, “Who the fuck are you four? And what is more, what the fuck are you doing here?”

Sean was at this point lighting a cigarette, so Tom answered, “The last I heard this was a free country, so what the fuck has it got to do with you what we are doing.’

The boy who had asked the question moved closer to Tom, “What have we here, a comedian or a tough guy?”

As all four of them were now sitting astride their Tandems, Sean calculated that if they took off in a hurry they would have a few minutes’ start on the gang, who would then have to start up the Mopeds before they could give chase.

This proved to be the case as the boys took off, with all four of them pedalling as if their lives depended on it, which may in fact have been true. They had reached the crest of a hill, before they could hear Moped engines telling them that the chase was on. They hurtled down the hill towards the ‘Harden’ roundabout at which point they needed to turn right towards ‘Rushall’ and home. Sean who was in the lead, when to save precocious time, he took the roundabout on the wrong side caused an elderly gentleman in a Hillman Minx to open his window just as Tom with Danny behind followed Sean’s lead, to shout “What’s going on, are you twats all fucking mad?”

Unfortunately for him this was not turning out to be his night, as no sooner had he shouted this than the lead Moped also trying Sean’s tactic of taking the roundabout on the wrong side, came unstuck as he struck the near side front wing of the Hillman, after which the rider flew into the air before landing in a heap on the grass verge.

By this time as the old guy was emerging from his car to inspect the damage, two more Mopeds also flashed by ignoring their fallen comrade who still lay motionless on the grass verge.

Sean and Tom though they pedalled furiously were aware that they were still being pursued as they now approached the ‘Rushall’ Railway crossing, they thankfully saw that the barrier was still open, but the flashing lights indicated that at any moment a train was approaching, meaning it would at any minute begin to fall. Sean with Flash behind pedalled even faster as the barrier did indeed begin its descent. Sean shot through the crossing with Tom just inches behind as both just managed to get through before the barrier reached its stop.

The first of the chasing Mopeds on realising that he was not going to beat the barrier, applied his brakes in a vain effort to avoid hitting it. He almost succeeded in this as the Moped stopped before crashing into the barrier but unfortunately the same cannot be said for its rider as the momentum threw him forward into the barrier where he hit his head on the flashing lamp, in the process rendering him unconscious.

After reaching the safety of home all four boys were so out of breath that they could not, for several minutes, speak. Mazza, on finding them in this state, asked, “What the fuck is it with you lot, out of breath after just a cycle ride, I ask you?”

The boys, though, were so knackered that they could not be bothered to tell him what had occurred.

Back at the ‘Harden’ roundabout a police car had by now arrived only to find a Moped stuck in the front wing of a Hillman Minx, whose owner was standing berating a young man who lay on the grass verge in an unconscious state as the irate driver shouted at him. “Look at what you lunatics have done to my car, who is going to pay for the damage? That is what I would like to know.’