Back in the day, when alcopops were confined to a can of Top Deck, being a paperboy was a noble trade and pubic hair was commonplace on the top shelf . The fashion for articles on traction engines and steam fairs was at its zenith. Barely a month would go by without one or other of the “Gentlemen’s Journals” featuring an in-depth review of the ‘Matlock Steamer’, the ‘Hartlepool Belle’ or ‘Old faithful’.
Whilst today’s "Jazz Mags" are filled to the brim with ‘Dial-a-Gran’, ‘Shag-a-melon’ & ‘Thrust me big boy’ Bermudan high premium phone lines, the informative yet slightly out of reach "Bongo Pamphlets" of my innocent youth, would take a more bucolic slant on life in the fast lane.
Tucked away alongside the Mary Millington feature you could guarantee a four page spread detailing Brian Forsythe’s painstaking refurbishment of his pride and joy ‘The Essex Spirit’, complete with truly compelling and incisive reportage: - Clacton based Brian spent 15 years rebuilding this classic Pendlebury Mark 4 in his garage. His wife Judy reckons he is bonkers but said, “at least I know where he is and he always comes in for his tea when I call him”.
It was as though the two were inextricably linked, women and traction engines, traction engines and women. I hasten to add that there was absolutely nothing erotic about it all. It was just a fact, men’s ‘personal’ magazines had features about traction engines. Quite right too!
And now as I wade through the vacuous and sterile ‘lifestyle’ magazines of today, every page featuring a scantily attired newsreaderette or a stripping tele sales executive from Maroubra/Tyneside/Latvia my mind drifts regularly… out there… beyond the photoshop skin tones, beyond the cantilevered breast work, back to a time and more importantly a place where the inner workings of a Pendlebury mk4 still work as a remarkable counterbalance to the lurid happenings on pages 15-96!
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