Happy days at £5 a week •
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YOUR MENTION of Redbourn (CM November 10) brought back memories of my early days as a budding commercial driver on the old A5, which we used to call the lorry road.
Drivers had to face the dreaded Ridge Hill, just north of South Mimms, and went on to Britain's most famous truck stop, Fred's 18-mile London Colney Cafe. Opposite was the Northwood Transport Café, run by the Vermy Ryn family, where a good dinner and a pint of tea and sweet cost 2s 6d to 3s old money.
Many old timers will remember Britain's first traffic lights at the Peahen crossroads, St Albans, and the nightmare of Markyate which saw many a fatal crash was the only village in Britain to have a 15mph limit.
In those days wages were £5 a week if you were lucky; happy days when the roads were a skilled driver's challenge.
I have just given up after 50 years and have had experience in 14 different countries. I have seen a lot of life on wheels and I would not have missed it for anything, from extreme heat 120°F to drifts 10ft deep; it makes you tough, it makes you wise, and above all, it makes you a driver.
JIMMY JAMES Truro Cornwall