Interesting reading.
I grew up post 2nd world war, everyone was living under tight circumstances and living in all sorts of accomodation. (There was even rationing as a WW2 legacy .)
I remember we as a family got evicted about three times, and bailiffs the last time nicked my Danset record player !
Cash was tight, and really the whole country was always skint !
But fun to grow up in, as everyone was in the same boat !
My dad was a GM/GMC/Vauxhall Bedford nut, an ex WW2 Para (6th Airborne and a bruiser )
He had a lock up workshop under some railway arches, inherited from his family going back into the 19th century. He fixed GM brand cars , everything else to him was $chit!
My first job as an eight year helper was to fix some
Bendix rod brakes under a mid 1930's Hillman Minx.
www.cargurus.com
I considered it a jalopy!
Like a lot of 1930's junk being driven post war inthe UK.. Similar in my view to a US Chicago bootlegging gangster car ! Such as you would see on the Saturday morning film matinees at the local Odeon!
All the time blowing up french letters, launching them off the balcony, hoping they would land in some poor innocent girl's ice cream tub below!
Over the years learned a lot from the "old man" and before I was of school leaver age,
I was was dedicated diesel schoolboy mechanic at 15. (Gardner diesel engines were my Rolls Royce ) I could tear down and rebuild a 6LW as a professional, even set the pump timing
My interest really flared up as a school holiday casual worker for tent company , erecting big marquees for county fairs in Gloucestershire Warwickshire , Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
On the way back to Gloucester there was always a stop for beers.
Being the snot nosed kid I was in the back of this Morris J2 van sat on the tentage.
The thing kept fading out with air in the system.
Much to the drivers frustration he kept cussing and raving about the van's performance . Repeatedly I kept saying
"It needs a bleed out, maybe something is loose on the fuel system" .
Eventually it stopped all together . Some the blokes stuffed the van like me said
"let the kid have a go !"
And what does snot nosed kid know about a diesel engine ??
.
Eventually I did fix it with an adjustable wrench, and off we went to the pub .
Being a 15 year old I had to sit outside in the garden, but the irascible old driver , Jack brought me a Whitbread Tankard shandy .
He sat down & said
"you have talent boy, where did you learn to fix diesel engines --my dad!"
You should consider a career in the auto industry you will go far and make a lot of money with that talent ! You will never go hungry & that made a change just thinking about it!
And so I did & never looked back!
The interesting thing while I was sat supping that shandy in the pub garden was this
young 15 year old shandy haired girl who jumped out of a Bedford CA van!
Buying some snacks we quickly chatted, and she told me she was off to Cardiff to do a singing gig.
As the van door closed she passed me a signed photo.
Thanks for the swig of of your beer --I'm LuLu !
Even me stinking of diesel fuel, she liked me! --
I was in love!
Every woman likes mechanic,especially down in South America way. 
Tuercas Viejas 
, also remember adults always putting their scrap wood out for the kids to collect for bonfire night and always trying to have the biggest bonfire within the surrounding schemes, I mind the coal man coming round a lot and I remember the bon accord juice guy also when you could take the glass bottles back to him for money off the bill and also taking the glass bottles back to the ice cream van for payment as they had 10p and such on the caps telling you it’s return value 
But I've always been very interested in engines, be it in cars or motorcycles. Have been riding motorcycles since I was 12 years old & they're my primary passion, with cars close behind.
