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Proving the rule
Page 44
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Nostalgia — like vintage vehicles — is not my strong point. I am an avid believer in "the best is yet to be." It is this psychology that keeps me going. However, there is always the exception that proves the rule.
Take the RHA express carriers group as an example. Last week they celebrated their 40th anniversary and their chairman, Harold Russett, in a brief, retrospective tour recounted the difficulties the group had encountered since its formation in 1937. It had survived a war, nationalisation, denationalisation and Barbara Castle, he said. "And yet we still keep going and growing.'
Harold even predicted that no matter what happens "We shall always be here, we shall not be moved!"
The highlight, I am told, was a very sprightly performance by 84-year-old Charles Dunbar, formerly of Red Arrow deliveries and the founder chairman of the group. He dropped names like A. C. B. Pickford, George Wynn, Dick Brittain and George Quick-Smith. Both Quick and Dick were in attendance last week.
Charles told the gathering that in 1937 Quick's salary as the group's permanent secretary was £50 a year, In a Welsh stage whisper Eddie Price reminded everyone that beer was then only threepence a pint (old money). Harold Russett had earlier announced that a wage agreement had been signed giving drivers a top wage of 104 shillings a week. That was in 1950, he said, and someone immediately claimed that they were paying the same figure today, only in pounds.