We’ve survived it all before... even aliens landing on M62
OUR history seems to marked by milestones of hard times, tragedies and England winning the World Cup in 1966. Recent disruptions might, in the future, be remembered as Brexit or Bust, Covid Lockdown and the Year of Strikes and Holiday Travel Meltdown, where hopeful vacationers booked three weeks away, on the understanding that three days at each end of the usual fortnight would be spent sleeping in queues at the airports of their choice.
Older generations have seen it all before: wars, moon landings, shortages, strikes, three-day weeks, and power cuts which I survived by playing Subbuteo table football by candle-light.
When the power went off at night, I played endless games with a mad Scotsman called Alex Cameron who happened to be my wife’s step-father.
A life lesson I learned was that Scots are competitive, with or without a claymore, and that Alex believed even the table top version of football was a man’s game, as my team were kicked asunder.
We have also had Cold War scares, acid rain from Chernobyl and the Great Alien Invasion Panic of West Yorkshire. My wife Maria was
Older generations have seen it all before: wars, moon landings, shortages, strikes, three-day weeks and power cuts... I survived by playing
Subbuteo. responsible that.
In the early years of BBC’s TV text service Ceefax, she read a report that said aliens had landed in a flying saucer on the M62 near Huddersfield. She phoned me at the Examiner office and I delicately questioned the story’s veracity.
“It’s on TV now,” she said. “I’m reading it.”
Which is how Neil Atkinson, ace journalist and crime reporter, phoned Huddersfield Police Station
for and asked: “Have aliens landed on the M62?”
Perhaps they had called at Hartshead Services for refreshment.
The police discovered the BBC Ceefax had been a test transmission. The words Maria had failed to notice were right at the start of the report: “Imagine if … ”
A bit like the consternation caused in America by Orson Welles with his radio version of War of The Worlds in 1938 in which he reported aliens were invading New York. Which, as a prime target, is a bit more plausible than Huddersfield.
My wife made the Examiner front page that day and the BBC promised not to do it again.
Back in 1973 ration coupons were issued because of petrol shortages, although were never used, and another fuel crisis in 2000 had those petrol stations still open, only serving emergency workers which, as well as police, fire service, ambulance drivers and NHS, included journalists. I got petrol by producing my Press Card.
That didn’t make me popular down at the pub.
The Summer of 76 was a 10-week heatwave with temperatures reaching 36 degrees Centigrade (97 Fahrenheit)
and brought drought, hosepipe bans and me unable to find a suitable friend with whom to share a shower. Or bath.
Well, that was one of the slogans of the time in an attempt to save water.
We now seem to be once more moving into a period of strikes and government conflict, with a growing tide of workers from trades and professions threatening action in the face of rising prices and inflation at 9%.
The only consolation is that we’ve survived it all before and more.
Including aliens landing on the M62 near Huddersfield.