It's A What?!?

A Memory of Wolverhampton.

In 1959, my father took me to Chapel Ash to see the latest arrival in the car showroom on the junction. (It might have been called Clark's)

The place was packed. So many people wanted to see the two new cars which were on display. They stood in the middle of the showroom: an Austin Mini and a Morris Mini, actually badged as a Morris Mini Minor I think, but it was hard to see them through the throng, especially for me as a young boy.

I heard so many men criticising the cars. 'It's blinking' small', "Look at them wheels - ten inches that's all', 'There's a string inside you av' ter pull to open the doors, not handles', 'Like a tin can', 'Junk', 'They'll never sell 'em', 'No room in the back at all', and so on and on and on. My father was dismissive too. He simply said that they were death-traps given their size.

How wrong so many people were!