Friday 16 May 2014

An Old Dream




Looking up from my steaming laptop I noticed on the telly a car similar to this one.  This little beats is a Fiat Gamine, and I first saw them in a garage at Blackhall in Edinburgh in the late 60's. At the time I could neither drive nor afford a car, £7 a week does not ensure happy transport! However I was impressed at the little runaround and have harboured a desire for one ever since. There again I have harboured desires for many things since that time and few have borne fruit, although the Heart of Midlothian did win the Scottish Cup in 1998 as I am sure you know and if you don't be happy to let Mr Smith instruct you.   
In those far off days I wore a lot of jeans, as I do now, however as Edinburgh has only two seasons, winter and a cold wet summer, I also wore maroon coloured cords quite a lot.  Indeed some time back I was perplexed as these were no longer to be found in the shops anywhere.  It appears Messrs Levi and Wrangler had ceased production.  After years of searching I discovered online where these could be obtained at enormous cost and very much against my wallet so I let that lie and returned to Tesco for their £6 jeans.  One of the 'outlet' shops nearby is a 'Levi' shop where jeans have been reduced to a cheap price, 'Buy Two for £90' was one offer I failed to run over for, and while Mr Levi made jeans for the gold diggers it now appears the gold diggers are working for him!   
Anyway my little run about, totally useless in cold wet Edinburgh, designed for Italian summers where heat and sunshine are found alongside blue sky and funny tasting wine.  It is of course possible the wine in Italy actually tastes better than the rancid stuff they send us of course.  So poverty and no licence ended my dream, a dream that remains.  Of course if anyone has such a working car they wish to donate please don't hesitate to send cash with it. 




6 comments:

the fly in the web said...

What a gorgeous little beast it is!
I had a little Fiat van at one point...pity it lacked most of the floor.

Lee said...

How cute are they! I've never seen one of them before. When my ex and I first met way back when...when we were both teenagers...he arrived in town in his little white Goggomobil Dart. It was such a fun little car. We had so much fun in that car. Fibre-glass body; 2-stroke motor...no doors!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goggomobil_Dart

It was a sad parting when Randall traded it in on an Austin-Healy Sprite. However, it, too, was a great little car...but the Goggo was kind of unique.

Randall wanted to get the Frog-eyed model(Mark 1, but there was none available; so he bought the Mark 11-A instead. We had fun in that little sports car, too. We were both young and carefree. He sold the Sprite before he headed overseas...where he stayed for 10 years! :)

We got together again when he arrived back in Aussie-Land; and we got married.

Sorry for the short history lesson; but the car you pictured kicked off some good memories.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I can see where one could have a lot of fun in that car.

Mike Smith said...

Mr Smith? At last, a little bit of respect!

Adullamite said...

Fly, Yes I am not sure whether these actually worked very well!

Lee, How the rich lived!

Jerry, Indeed, it looks super.

Mike, That happens with age....

Lee said...

Rich? Yeah! We were rich with the exuberance of youth.